Bemused
by blockthewriter
Summary: Summer's in full swing and Ross is content with trying to have as much fun as she possibly can, especially now that El's back in their lives and the new mall in town is open. However, it doesn't last long, and the Party quickly finds more trouble than they bargained, as usual. Set in S3 of ST, crossover with IT(2017). Sequel to Perplexed
1. Chapter 1

**Sequel**

**If you have not read Perplexed(set in s2 of Stranger Things and a crossover with IT) or it's prequel (set in s1 of Stranger Things) then I recommend going and doing that. If you don't want to, it's whatever, you might just be a bit confused.**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I don't own the ideas, characters, or plot of Stranger Things and IT(2017)**

* * *

"Do you think they're doing it?"

Max turned to him, eyebrows furrowed and confusion marring her freckled face. "Who?" She asked. "Doing what?"

Richie smirked (a look that everyone thought was permanently engraved into his facial features), and leaned backwards into the pillar behind him, wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive way.

"Mike and El. Doing know? Doing each other? Sex? Interc—"

"We get it!" Ross interrupted quickly, holding a hand up to signal that he could stop. He smiled brightly at her in return.

"Ew!" Max exclaimed, like Richie had handed her a worm and asked her to eat it. "No! I doubt it. Hopper would kill Mike."

"Not if he doesn't find out!"

"Mike says they've got some three inch rule with the door," Ross told them, shifting on her feet as someone passed them by. She knew this because Mike tells her stuff. As much as Richie has weaseled his way to her and attached himself to her side as a permanent fixture, her and Mike still had a strong bond. He's okay with it. He gets jealous only sometimes. He feels bad for it all the time. "It's highly unlikely that they're having sex if Hopper could take a peek."

"Are you guys seriouslydebating that right now?" The trio looked over as Lucas approached from their spot at the curb, Will only a footstep behind him. They paused for a second to allow a couple to pass in front of them before settling themselves inside the small circle they'd made.

"Mike's late. Again," Richie emphasized, waving his hand around like Lucas should've known what that means. Judging by the look on his face, he did, but Richie said it anyway because he's immature like that. "What other reason would it be for then that he's getting some action?"

"I think you're thinking the wrong kind of action," Will said, screwing up his face while he thought about it. Richie smiled widely at the expression. "They're probably just making out."

"Yeah," Richie drew out, pushing off the pillar behind him to throw an arm around Will's shoulders. "Making out while doing it."

"Quit it," Max hissed, slapping him straight in the chest while Will shoved him off.

"He's not having sex," Ross told them, turning towards the street. "He's right there."

She pointed to where Mike Wheeler is riding up on his bike, backpack on and super comm strapped to his handle bars.

Lucas crossed his arms and waited for him to get to them—looking every bit the mother who was waiting for her kid to come home after they'd broken curfew.

"You're late," Lucas said sternly, and Richie snorted because he soundedlike a mom, too.

"Sorry!" Mike called out, coasting past them on his bike, not sounding too sorry at all. He climbed off of it in a fluid motion and put it in the rack with the others.

"Again."

"We're gonna miss the opening," Will complained, and Mike turned to him with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, if you keep whining about it. Let's go!"

Lucas pulled his shoulders up high and started to mimic Mike (poorly, in Richie's opinion, but they couldn't all be as good as him). He raised his hands as he raised his voice an octave and said, "If you guys keep whining about it, nyeh-nyeh-nyeh!"

Mike wasn't having it and grabbed Lucas to shove him towards the doors of the mall, "Just please stop talking, dude."

"Let me guess," Lucas asked when they all squeezed through the groups of people to get inside. "You were busy."

The mall is crowded, like it always was, ever since it's opened. The Party—when they weren't off venturing somewhere they weren't supposed to be—could usually be found at Starcourt.

The cinema was a place they frequent (if the movies are good), along with the food court, the bowling alley, or the arcade. Richie had only ever been to the old arcade a few times, but he was almost grateful it went out of business when the mall opened up, because the new one is was better.

Next to those few places, he also supposed they all like to go there because of the way it makes Hawkins feel. The shops and bright lights and constant buzz of people made their small town seem a whole lot bigger. While he wasn't quite sure about all of them, he knew that Ross and himself are heading to a city the moment they're able. And Mad Max talked of California whenever Richie was willing to listen, and while he isn't sure if she lived in a city or not, he thought the mall made her feel a bit more at home.

In front of him, Lucas was smacking his lips together near Mike's ear to make kissing sounds, and Mike scoffed at him indignantly.

"Oh yeah, real mature, Lucas!"

Richie decided he should offer his input.

"Yeah, c'mon Lucas. Be mature," he said, and he could already see Ross rolling her eyes at him. "We all know they were getting it on."

In one fluid motion that caught Richie off guard, Mike swung around and caught him straight in the stomach. "Shut up!"

"Ugh!" Richie grunted, stopping for a moment to catch his breath, and ignoring the laughs of Ross and Max. "Touché, Mikey."

Max grabbed his arm and started to drag him along so he wouldn't fall behind within the bustling sea of people.

"Oh, El," Lucas continued to taunt in a high pitch, "I wish we could make out forever, and never hang out with any of our friends!"

Richie would've laughed if he had the breath to do so.

"Lucas, stop," Max warned her boyfriend, tugging Richie behind her until he tapped on her wrist so she could let go.

"Will thinks it's funny."

"Because it is!" Will clarified, grinning over at Richie. "Richie thinks it, too!"

He gave a thumbs up to agree, but no one was looking anyway. They were all watching Mike as he rounded back on them all for a moment, walking backwards.

"Yeah, it's so funnythat I want to spend romantic time with my girlfriend!"

He spun back around and Ross reached forward to tug on his sleeve, rolling her eyes as she did so.

"First off, for the love of God, don't call it romantic time. Make's it sound lame—"

"Couldn't agree more, darling!" Richie added with a British accent.

"—And second off, Lucas and Max still manage to hang out with us, and they're dating."

"Yeah!" Lucas agreed triumphantly, reaching behind him to grab hold of Max. "I'm spending romantic time with my girlfriend right now!"

"Me and Will managed to fit you guys and our relationship into our schedule," Richie joked, grinning as Will went along with it and agreed.

"Yeah!"

One thing Richie had never really expected was for Will Byers to be laid back around him. Richie cussed and made inappropriate jokes, and when he first met Will, the kid seemed too shy for his own good. But the shyness went away in time, and Will actively played along with him now, which clearly shocked everyone in the party at first. They got used to it.

They beelined it towards the escalators, and started to butt their way down and between people—which Ross might have considered a tragedy if they weren't in such a hurry (she claimed that if someone walked down steps that move for them, it took the fun out of it)—squeezing passed them so they could make it down faster.

Mike was in the lead, hardly giving anyone an apology as they cut straight through the masses. Max and Will were the one's kind enough to call out Excuse us!and We're sorry! as they went.

Once they got off, they weaved their way through a group of snotty high school girls dressed in pink, one of which threw out a snarky Watch it!when Mike nearly ran into her. He hardly batted an eye though, and kept moving.

Somewhere on their left a voice called out to them, one they've all heard, but Richie had to look over to put a face to it.

"Yeah! Watch it, nerd!"

Lucas's little sister was eating ice cream, perched on the edge of a bench with a bunch of little girls around her, like she was the leader of some glitter and rainbow gang that only ate soft serve.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?" Lucas called out to her over the noise of other people.

"Isn't it time you died?" Erica shot back.

Next to him, Ross raised her eyebrows. "Wow. That escalated quickly."

"It's kinda sexy," Richie said off handedly, trying to hide his grin when she smacks him on the arm.

"She's like, twelve!"

"Pyscho!" Lucas retorted.

"Butthead!"

"Mall rat!" (Which was true. Richie couldn't remember a time they went to the mall and Erica wasn't there).

"Fart face!"

Lucas spun on his heel to blow a raspberry at Erica as they keep going, and Max snatched his arm up, tugging him along.

"Oh, now that was mature," she hissed at him as they entered Scoops Ahoy.

That was another place they went to a lot, the little ice cream parlor at the food court. They waltz right up to the counter staring back at the employee that already looks annoyed by their appearance.

Mike reached the counter first, and stared her right in the eyes as he started to slam down on the little bell that was sitting out.

She was probably annoyed for good reason.

After a moment, when it's clear Mike isn't going to stop unless someone makes him, Ross shoved her way to the front and hip bumps Mike out of the way, grabbing the bell and sliding it in the opposite direction.

"Hey, Robin," she smiled sweetly. "Excuse my obnoxious friend. Is Steve in?"

Robin looked over at Mike and smiled sarcastically, calling out, "Hey, dingus! Your children are here!"

As if he was waiting for it, the sliding glass doors on the counter behind Robin open up to reveal Steve Harrington, beautiful hair and all.

"Hey, dad!" Richie said to humor Robin. "Think you can hook us up?"

"Again?" Steve asked. "Seriously?"

They all just stared at him blankly, like it was obvious, and Mike reached over Ross to start jamming down on the bell once more.

A second later, Steve was leading them into the back of the shop and through a metal door, to the back hallways of Starcourt Mall.

Employees only.

He checked the hall (wouldn't do him or the kids any good to get caught) before holding the door open for them, ushering them through.

"Come on, come on," he hissed at them. It was a stark change from the beginning of the summer, when he'd excitedly snuck them all back there to check it out. Their overuse of it must've been leaving him paranoid.

They began to walk off, and he reminded them threateningly, "I swear, if anybody hears about this—"

"We're dead!" They all finished. It wasn't the first time they'd heard it.

And so they head out, Mike once again leading the Party down the halls until they reach their destination.

The back entrance to the movie theatre.

Mike peeked his head through the doorway to check the hallway real quick, because Steve really would kill at least one of them if they got caught.

"All clear."

They're secret entrance (secret in that nobody knows they use it except Steve) allowed them to skip the lines and the paying and head straight to the movie.

It was illegal, and Richie figured that a few of them were still a little bit guilty for it (i.e. Will), but the thrill of doing something they definitely weren't supposed to do topped it. Especially when they weren't getting caught.

It was something he never pulled off back in Derry. He imagined that if he had been able to do it with anyone, it would have been Beverly, but he didn't really get to know her until a few months before he moved.

And lord knows they'd been a bit too busy to think about sneaking into the movies.

There is, surprisingly enough, six seats open dead center of the theatre (give or take a row or two). They excuse themselves while they step over people go get to them.

Richie's sat between Ross and Max, which he's definitely not complaining about. They were watching a scary movie, and if anyone wasn't going to get scared, it was going to be the redheads.

"See, Lucas?" Mike hissed from one end of the row. "We made it."

"We missed the previews," Lucas pointed out from the other end.

"Still made it," Max interjected. Then, after a moment, "Fart face."

"How mature of you there, Maxine," Richie noted, and he leaned towards Ross as Max made to hit him.

Behind them, someone shushed them.

Will leaned a crossed Ross to pass Richie the snacks they had stashed away in Mike's bag. He gave some to Max for her and Lucas to share, but kept the M&Ms for him and Ross to share.

The movie began to start up after a moment, and Richie leaned back, extending his legs out as best as he could in the cramped isles.

Thirty seconds later, though, the screen went dark.

Considering how everyone started to boo at the black screen, that wasn't supposed to happen. Richie joined in with the booing, throwing his hands up and tossing M&Ms everywhere as he did so.

With the room pitch black, Richie didn't notice anything was wrong until Ross reached over to grab his arm.

"Code Waterfall," she said in the dark, and Richie groaned.

"God dammit, Ross," he complained, and she pinched his arm.

"It's not my fault!"

"What's not your fault?" Will asked from the otherwise of Ross.

"Her face is having it's period again," Richie explained, flinching as Ross pinched his arm once more.

"I told you to stop calling it that!"

"Are you okay?" Will asked.

"Yeah, it's just bleeding again."

"C'mon, dollface," Richie said scooting to the edge of his seat and holding his arm up so Ross could use it to stand. "I'll take you to the bathroom. Don't let it drip anywhere."

They both stand up, and Richie offered a short explanation of Code Waterfallto Max and Lucas as the edged their way down the row of seats.

Code Waterfall was what they called Ross's nosebleeds. Much like Dr Owens had told her all those months ago, her nosebleeds didn't stop. In fact, right after the whole Mind Flayer incident (good times, right?) in the face, they'd gotten so frequent she was having a nosebleed at least once every two days, if not more.

Now, even though they still happened, there was no real pattern to the bleeding, and she never had more than one within a week.

Richie was usually the one that offered to Ross, next to Max and Mike. Ever since the Snowball dance, the two had become practically inseparable.

He wasn't even going to lie. He had a crush on her for a good month or so afterwards, but eventually that butterfly feeling went away and his heart stopped beating faster whenever she was near. He was glad. The crush was annoying and frankly only reminded him of Derry.

Especially because she was completely oblivious to it.

He was pretty sure he'd gotten over it, anyhow. Sure, he still got jealous, but he hid it well. And the uncomfortable feeling he used to get whenever Steve Harrington was around—because Ross had a borderline ridiculous crush on the guy (Richie couldn't blame her, he did have nice hair)—went away, too. He considered that improvement.

They managed to get themselves out of the actual theatre and back into the hall without tripping over anything in the dark, and Richie pushed the door open only to be met with...more darkness.

"Did the power go out or something?" She asked. He had figured that the film reel was just offset or something, but considering how they couldn't spy a single lick of light anywhere, she had to of been right. The whole building must have blacked out or something.

"Something like that," Richie muttered, staring down into the black hallway.

A moment later, the lights flickered back on.

"Aha!" He exclaimed, spinning around to face Ross.

He cringed when he saw her.

"Oh!" He said, slipping into a Scottish accent. "That one's bad, Lassie."

"You don't say," she drawled, trying to readjust her hand so the blood would stop leaking through her fingers. She used her free hand to rub the side of her head, closing her eyes. "The lights hurt my head."

Richie gave her an odd look and grabbed her free arm, pulling her down the hallways slowly. "You haven't had a headache with a nose blood in a long time, right?"

"Yeah," she confirmed, letting him lead her along as his frowned. "But it's probably nothing."

"Whatever you say," he shrugged, because neither of them wanted to think about if it was something.

There'd been more times than Richie could count that he'd woken up, drenched in sweat, with Pennywise and Demodogs chasing him through his dreams. Of course, he only ever told Ross about the monsters she knew of.

It wasn't something they ever talked about often, only when they were alone and when the images were fresh in their minds from the night before. Ross told him about the Demogorgan and how she still expected to wake up in the Upside Down sometimes. He never told her about his summer before moving to Hawkins.

Sometimes he could tell she was itching to ask, but she never did.

"Want me to come in with you?" He asked, nodding towards the door to the ladies room.

"Sure, I don't care."

Richie didn't care, either, and opened the door to come face to face with an older lady.

On his part, he played past her apparent confusion and smiled sweetly, opening the door wider so she could pass though. She glanced from him, to the sign next to the door frame marking it the female restroom, back to him, and then to Ross. A disgusted look (which didn't do too much good for her wrinkles) came over her face and she hurried off down the hall.

They stepped in, and as the door closed behind them Richie looked towards the stalls. "Was she pissing in the dark?"

"I don't know," Ross said back smartly, making her way to the sinks. "Why don't you go ask her?"

He laughed at her and observed the room as he leaned against the wall. They didn't have urinals, he noted. He'd never thought about it before, but it made sense.

"Paper towels, please?" Ross was bent over the sink, letting the blood dribble down her chin into the white porcelain. He snagged a few for her and moved to lean against the sink on the other side, holding them out for her.

As she worked on wiping the blood away, Richie watched her with an intense gaze that she could feel. She glanced at him a few times, at the expression that portrayed hard thinking, and then he finally said, "Your face looks like Eddie's mom's vagina when she's on her period."

She rolled her eyes, used to his comments. He knew she wanted to laugh.

"You know," she drawled, spitting blood into the sink before turning to look at him. "I know more about Eddie's mom's vagina than I do about Eddie."

Another thing he didn't tell her about. She'd ask about his Losers every once in a while, and he was always happy to talk about some of the fun normal kid shit they did, but it was hard. He couldn't talk about them too long before falling into a mood that he hated but could seem to pull himself out of.

He hadn't had any contact with the Losers since he'd left. His mixed feelings over the subject (one part regretting that he'd managed to find other friends which he knew made no sense, and the other part struggling how to speak to them without telling them about what happened in Hawkins), usually sent him into a quiet episode. Ross was typically able to pull him out of it and change the topic quickly (she was insanely good at noticing when people were uncomfortable), but for the rest of the day he always felt low laying guilt over it all.

He recovered quickly. "So do I."

"Ew!" Ross did laugh this time. She snorted and shook her head. "That's gross, Richie!"

He grinned at the smile on her face and kept it up, "Not any grosser than the information I have on Karen's!"

She shoved the back of her hand against his shoulder and laughed. "You're ridiculous."

"Ridiculously handsome, I think you mean."

"Yes, definitely," she said sarcastically, scrunching her nose at him. "Can you find the light switch?"

His smirk turned to a frown. "It hurts that bad?"

She grunted her yes at him and then said," I don't think I'm gonna be able to watch the movie."

"That's fine," he shrugged, taking a step towards her. "It seemed like a dumb movie anyway."

(It was actually one he'd been excited to see).

"You're not gonna go and watch it?"

He rolled his eyes grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the sink and near the blank space on the walls so they could slide down to fit on the floor.

"Of course not," he said like it was obvious, going to the door and flicking the lights off. "I'm not gonna leave you alone."

"Thanks, Richie," she said leaning into him when he slid down to sit next to her.

"No problem," he said, a western accent spilling out of him. "What kinda romantic time would this here be if I let you sit here by your lonesome while I finished the movie."

"Oh, you wish, Tozier," Ross laughed, shaking her head against his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled his knees up to his chest. "You wish."

.

"Got everything you need, Ross? We gotta hit the road!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Ross shouted. "Give me a minute!

"You said that ten minutes ago!"

"What's the rush, old man?" she said to herself, hurrying to her dresser with an open bag. She paused to pick up a pair of shorts that had fallen out, and reached into an open drawer to grab to random shirts. Shoving those inside, she reached next for a wad of cash on the top, then dropped next to a clean laundry basket to find some socks.

"Aren't you just packed for Max's tonight? What's taking so long?"

"Hold your horses!" Ross shouted. She couldn't find a matching pair so she just puts two that look relatively the same and shove them in with everything else. Lastly put in her super comm, closed the bag, and then booked it out of her room.

Her dad stood in the foyer, his own bag next to his feet as he watched her rush down the stairs. "Come on, slow poke."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," she exclaimed as he picked up his bag. "Why are you so excited to get rid of me?"

He laughed as he pulled open the door and said, "You manage to get yourself into a lot of trouble. It's less responsibility for me, more responsibility for your friends' parents."

"Of course."

"Max's parents are okay with you staying at her house for tonight?" He asked her as she tossed her bag into the truck.

"Yeah, they are," she said as she went back to get her bike by the front porch. "Her mom said I was welcome to stay the whole time you were out of town, but I told her that the Wheelers were taking me."

"Thank god for Karen Wheeler."

Ross's dad was taking a trip out of town for work. He'd be gone for a few days, and so she was temporarily adopted by Mike's mom until he was back. She was just staying at Max's tonight because the skater had asked if she wanted to.

David's work trips had become more frequent ever since winter ended, and with that it seemed his mood improved as well. Of course, Ross would rather think it was because their relationship was probably the least strained it's ever been before, but she knew it was something else. He was always happiest when he was about to leave, and they fought the most after he got back. And what made it worse was that he was lying. She knew he wasn't working on these trips. Not all the time.

"Remember to tell her thank you, yeah?" He asked, tossing his own bag in the truck while she wheeled her bike towards the bed of the truck.

"I always do," she said as he took her bike and lifted it into the bed for her. She moved to get into the truck and waited for him to join her.

"So, where am I dropping you off again?" He asked, shutting the door. He started up the vehicle with a rumble, and they were off.

"Richie's place," she said. "Dustin comes back today from camp and we're going to surprise him at his house."

"Then why am I taking you to Richie's?"

"You didn't let me finish," Ross said. "From Richie's house we're going to Max's to drop off my stuff and pick her up. Thenwe go go Dustin's."

"Alright, alright," her dad said, nodding. "And I don't have to worry about leaving you and this Tozier kid alone, do I?"

"No, dad!" She groaned, rolling her eyes when he started to laugh loudly. "Me and him hang out all the time, nothings going to happen!"

"All the time, huh?" He winked at her.

"You would know that if you weren't always out of town," she said, crossing her arms in faux defiance.

"Hey, now, that's not fair!" he exclaimed, reaching over with one hand to push at her arm. "I've got work, you know that."

He was lying. She knew he was.

"Yeah, I know that."

.

"It's just annoying," Ross groaned, falling backwards onto his bed. Her dad had dropped her off around twenty minutes ago, and Richie just managed to drag her away from conversation with his parents.

"Don't get me wrong," she continued as he sat down next to her, careful to avoid sitting on her hair. "I like it when he's in a good mood. He's just only in a good mood when he's leaving."

"At least you guys are fighting less," he shrugged, following her eyes upwards to the pictures he had pinned on his ceiling. They were his ones back from Derry. He could remember buying them from the theatre with Bill, Stan, and Eddie.

"I mean, yeah," she said, nodding. "But the only reason we're fighting less is because he's gone so often there's less things to fight about. Because he's not around to get mad!

"And I know this is so stupid to complain about because I should be happy we're fighting less and happy that he's happy, it's just—"

"He's lying about where he's going," Richie finished, swinging his gaze downwards.

"Yeah," she said, tilting her head at him. She furrowed her eyebrows. "Do I complain about it too much?"

"Nah, I just listen to you," he shrugged. "Why do you think he's lying?"

"I don't know."

She sat up and scooted back so she could lead against his wall, and he moved to join her.

"Mike thinks I'm just being a little paranoid because he's gone more than he used to be," she sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest. Richie dimly wondered when she first told Mike about this and then pushed it away. It didn't matter who she fucking told first. He should be happy he told her at all. "Which he's probably right. But I don't know, I just have this feeling."

He wasn't really sure what to say to that, because he nearly thought that Ross was so used to fighting with her dad she didn't know what to do now that they stopped. So instead he said, "Didn't you say he stopped being a lovesick puppy about Will's mom? Maybe he found himself a lady?"

He wiggles his eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes, shoving his face back. "Oh yes, I'm so sure."

He pushed her hand away, and smiled when she flipped him off. They sat in silence for a total of three seconds before he started talking again.

"Wanna smoke?"

He leaned over her without waiting for an answer and pushed her legs down so he was laying on his stomach across her lap. He reached for his nightstand drawer where he stashed his cigarettes.

"Or something to eat," she grunted, wincing. "Your hip bone is stabbing me. You need to gain some weight."

"You know what, King," he started, jerking around so his hip dig further into her stomach. "You can't say shit about me being skinny, because you're just as skinny as me. Aside from your ass, maybe."

She pinched her thumb into his side and said, "Shut up about my ass."

"I can't," he said, shoving a cigarette between his teeth. "It's always in my face."

"It is not," she rolled her eyes. He started to get off of her and she pushed him the rest of the way off with a snort. "You're just always looking."

"Hell yeah I am," he smirked. She jumped off of his bed and smacked the side of his head with the back of her palm. She walked to the other side of his room and pulled one of his Hawaiian shirts off of his door handle.

Richie pulled a lighter out of a small little pot that Ross had made in art class. Her and Will had brought home dozens from school and gave each of their friends at least one. Most of them were quite frankly shit, but they all loved them anyway.

He looked over as Ross pulled on his shirt and furrowed his eyebrows, grabbing the stereo from his desk.

She turned around and caught him staring. "What?" She asked, adjusting the sleeves.

Richie rolled his eyes and placed the stereo next to the window so he could open it. "Didn't realize that shirt was yours."

"Of course it is."

He stuck one leg out the window, planting it firmly on the shingled roof, and turned around to catch the smirk on her face. Shaking his head slightly, and turning around so she didn't see the smile on his face, he crawled the rest of the way out. Ross followed him a moment later and stretched herself out on the roof, carefully shaded by a large tree in Richie's backyard.

He didn't lie down immediately and took a moment to light his cigarette. Once it was lit and he was able to puff, he took a draw and placed the lighter on the ledge of the window inside his room.

He clicked on the stereo while he was there and moved to lay next to Ross as Hold the Lineby Toto started playing, picking up somewhere in the second verse.

Ross's gave a content sigh. "I love this song."

"I know," he said, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

They sat in silence, Richie smoking and Ross messing with the buttons on the borrowed shirt. After a few songs passed and Richie had stamped his cigarette against the shingles and flicked it down into the yard below, he asked, "Ross?"

"Yeah?" She had her eyes closed and was listening to the music while basking in the slight breeze.

"Ever wonder what it would've been like if I never moved to Hawkins?"

She opened her eyes then, and rolled her head to the side to look at him. He didn't take his gaze from the tree above them.

"No," she said after a moment. She shook her head and looked up at the tree as well, shrugging despite the fact he couldn't see her. "And I don't know if I want to."

* * *

**A/N: soooooo, gonna be honest, I wasn't planning on posting this until I was at least a few chapters ahead, but I looked at the reviews I was getting on Perused and figured I had to give you guys something soon. That being said, updates might remain slow. Life's busy. I know, I hate it too. In those reviews I mentioned, there were a lot of questions. If you posted them, you'll know what I'm talking about when I answer them here quickly. Yeah, the 27 years would end up being in 2010 (if I did math right idk). the Losers are going to have fun learning about all the shit Richie's been through at Hawkins, and the same will be with the Party when they learn about Derry! And there is a slim teensy tiny chance that Pennywise could, theoretically, wake up early from his nap. Those are the only questions/thoughts I could remember off the top of my head, but the rest will be answered in due time. With that, feedback is encouraged! Please, seriously! It keeps me writing :P**

**\- blockthewriter**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own the ideas, characters, or plot of Stranger Things and IT(2017)**

* * *

**A/N: hello, I'm back. Sorry this took so long, shits been going down. School was just cancelled for the rest of the year so I guess I can kiss my senior year goodbye. Anyway, i want to thank everyone for all the love this has already gotten. Most of everyone who left a review was a guest so I can't exactly reply, but I want to say that I love the suggestions and thoughts you give me. Please keep it up! I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors, and I hope you enjoy! **

**\- blockthewriter**

* * *

Max turned to Ross and gave her a firm nod, straightening her back with a small smirk against her lips. Ross turned to Lucas and nodded, who passed it all the way down the line to Mike.

He signaled Eleven with hushed, "Now!"

A moment later, she could heard all of the toys' whirring and moving fall to a stop, and Max peeked her head around the corner. She gestured for the rest of them to move out, and Ross slipped through the door frame quietly, smiling when she saw Dustin kneeling on the carpet.

He was holding some sort of spray can in one hand, and a Star Wars toy in the other, and he was completely oblivious as they all snuck up behind him. (She wasn't sure how he didn't hear them. Seven kids sneaking up on another all at once wasn't the most silent activity, as much as they wished it was).

They tucked party blowers between their lips, Richie grabbed the bucket of shredded paper they were using as confetti, and Lucas held up the 'Welcome Home' sign that Ross and Will had drawn up.

Dustin stood up, holding the toy in his hands, and Max held up her hand to give them the count down. On three, they all leaned towards him and blew on the noise makers, and Richie tossed the faux confetti in the air.

Dustin...didn't take it well.

He turned around screaming like he'd just witnessed the murder of his imaginary dog, finger pressed down on the nozzle or a Farrah Faucet (Steve was giving him lessons) spray can. Lucas was the one unfortunate enough to take the onslaught at point blank range.

Simultaneously, all of them but Lucas jumped backwards to avoid hair spray to the face. Lucas had started screaming the moment Dustin turned the can on him, eyes squeezed shut and mouth wide open. After a moment, he lifted his hands up like that was going to make things better.

"Close your mouth, Lucas!"

.

They could hear Lucas whining from the kitchen, screeching and shooting out a stream of curses every few seconds. It was as loud as Richie's laughter, and between him and Lucas they could hear Max make the occasional comment every once in awhile.

For a good thirty seconds all three of them were quiet, but they heard Lucas shout, "I was just asking!" It was immediately followed by a high pitched scream and Richie howling with laughter.

They were in Dustin's room, standing around as he showed them his trinkets and doohickey's he made at Camp Know-Where. He'd been off to wherever it was actually located since summer had started.

"I call it...the forever clock."

The Forever Clock looked like some sort of mini handmade windmill. Ross wasn't sure where he got the clock part from.

"Alright? Powered by wind," he said, turning the crank on the back. "Very useful in the apocalypse."

"You're turning it by yourself. Doesn't that mean it's man powered?" Ross asked. She only received a sharp look in return, and the object was passed off to Will.

Mike watched Will as he fiddled around with it, but Eleven kept her gaze trained on Dustin as he grabbed another thing.

Having Eleven around was a welcome change...but also a weird one. She never actually thought that El would be hanging out with them, and of course there were lots of restrictions and rules, but having her around a lot was mind boggling. Especially because it was almost like watching her grow up.

When she was allowed out of the cabin to hang out with them, her ability to talk properly had improved a lot since they'd first met. But in the few months she'd been around all of them it had progressed even more, to the point where she could carry a whole conversation without moments of pulling silence from her as she gathered her words. It still sounded like she was adjusting to talking with proper grammar, but it was getting there.

It was also weird because it was like watching her develop a personality. Not to say she didn't have a personality before, but it was hard to express things and feelings when you were locked in a lab for most of your life and the restricted to a tiny cabin in the woods. She didn't really speak unless spoken to, but she would crack a random joke every once in a while that nearly had them all to tears.

The only thing that really off put Ross about it all was her relationship with Mike. They spent a lot of alone time together, to the point where they were by themselves more than they were with the group. Which was fine and all, but she wanted to spend time with both of them. Mike was her best friend and El was just being introduced into the world (albeit not a lot of it. She wasn't allowed in public with big crowds).They were young, and Ross thought that they should spend more time with the group before they entered high school and things like relationships got serious.

Besides, if Lucas and Max could figure out their time management to have alone time but also hang out with friends all the time, she didn't see why Mike and El couldn't.

But regardless she was happy that El was with them. She wasn't as close with her as she would've liked to be, but it was better than not having her around at all.

"Then, I give you," Dustin continued, spinning towards them, "the Slammer."

"What in the fuck," Ross muttered under her breath, eyeing the invention he presented themselves

The Slammer was some weird contraption with a hammer attached to the end, and when he pressed a button it started to move back and forth erratically.

Dustin held it out for her and she leaned backwards, eyebrows darting upwards when he gave her a sly grin. He changed direction and pointed it in El and Mike's direction, and El must've had the same thoughts as her, because she pulled backwards too, tugging Mike with her. Meanwhile he was looking at the thing with what Ross could only call mild fascination.

"Pretty neat, huh?" Dustin asked.

Something like that, Ross supposed.

"But this..." he continued, turning around to grab the straps of an old looking blue and yellow duffle bag. It looked like it was packed to it's maximum capacity and seemed heavy. "...is my masterpiece."

He sat it down as gently as he could on the ground between them all, and they kneeled down around him to get a close look at whatever was inside.

"I would like you to meet," He unzipped the bag, "Cerebro."

The bag is packed full of a bunch of technical looking stuff that Ross knew she would never be able to understand unless someone gave her a coloring guide with a step by step explanation on what it was and what it did. She wasn't alone, though. El had the same look, and so did Mike and Will (who were considerably more nerdy than either of them).

"What exactly are we looking at here?" Mike asked.

For Dustin's part, he didn't look put off at all by their confusion, and continued without missing a beat. "An unassembled one-of-a-kind battery-powered radio tower." He was all smiles as he watched for their reactions, nodding at them as they stared blankly back.

"So," Will started, "it's a...a ham radio."

"The Cadillacof ham radios," Dustin stressed. "This baby carries a crystal-clear connection over vast distances. I'm talking North Pole to South." He drew his hand across the air for clarification.

"That sounds a little exaggerated," Ross said, eyeing the contents of the bag. "Are you sure?"

"One hundred percent," Dustin said, filled with pride. "So Ican talk to my girlfriend whenever and wherever I choose."

Ross turned to look at him so quick, she was surprised she didn't snap her neck. She glanced at the others real fast, just to confirm she heard correctly (because really? Dustin? Girlfriend? Last she checked he was married to the Voyage of Curiosity), and then turned her gaze back to him.

"Girlfriend?" They all asked at once.

He nodded proudly.

Ross was up in an instant. "Lucas! Lucas!" She ran to the door and started down the hall. "You'll never guess what just happened!"

.

"Why are you guys talking about Shakespeare?" Richie asked from his spot in the grass. "School's over, fuck English class!"

Him and Ross were laying a few feet apart, probably baking in the sun's glare. The moment they arrived at Dustin's so called 'perfect location', Richie had seen the size of the hill they'd have to climb and immediately challenged Ross to a race. Needless to say, the hill was practically a mountain in terms of sprinting up it, and they didn't make it to the top.

Mainly because Richie was getting tired and he couldn't let Ross win, so he tackled her onto the ground and claimed he tripped.

"Dustin says him and Suzie are like Romeo and Juliet," Will explained as they approached.

"You do know how Romeo and Juliet ended, right?" Ross asked, pushing herself up into a sitting position.

"I didn't mean it literally!" Dustin defended himself. "I meant—"

"Hey, guys!"

Richie sat up so he could see Mike, who was standing in the grass with El, a bit farther down the hill from them.

He already knew what was coming. Mike and El had to go have their daily make out sessions. He didn't know whether to be annoyed or impressed.

"This is fun and all," Mike started. "But, uh..." He lifted his wrist up and tapped the watch there.

"I have to go home," Eleven said with an apologetic smile.

Dustin gestured go the top of the hill. "We're almost there."

"Sorry, man," Mike shrugged. "Curfew."

"Oh, boo you!" Ross exclaimed, giving him a thumbs down. Mike gave her a funny smile and shrugged again, before turning down the hill with El following him closely behind.

"Good luck!" She wished them, waving with a big smile.

"No, you good luck!" Richie yelled back with a silly Russian accent. He shook his fists at their backs. "Go to house! Share kisses! Leave door three inches!"

Mike looked over his shoulder to flip him the bird, but otherwise didn't respond.

"Curfew at four?" Dustin asked incredulously.

"They're lying," Lucas said, shaking his head.

"It's been like this all summer," Will added.

"It's romantic," Max said with a small smile.

"It's gross."

"It's bullshit. I just got home," Dustin said, clearly disappointed. Richie felt a little bad. He'd been gone for nearly the whole summer and had hardly gotten to hang out with Mike and Eleven, or any of them for that matter.

"Well, their loss, right?" He continued a moment later, trying to sound upbeat. "Onwards and upwards! Susie awaits!"

Richie groaned and picked himself out of the itchy grass, moving slowly to trudge up the hill behind Max, Dustin, and Lucas. He didn't notice that Will and Ross weren't following until Dustin yelled for them to hurry up.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Will spin around back towards them and help Ross up onto her feet.

She asked him something and he stuttered out an answer, and after a short pause she nodded up towards them and linked her arm with him, pulling him along with her.

Richie smiled at her when she caught his gaze, and turned back forward.

Unlike her and Mike's friendship, her and Will's didn't make him jealous on any sort of scale. For one, those two just weren't as close as her and Wheeler, but it was also hard to be mad because Will was just such a likable person.

Sure, he asked to play D&D a lot, and Richie had no idea what the fuck that was about, but other than that he was just all around a lovable guy. Shy and quiet in public but funny and loud when someone got him riled up. He played along with Richie's jokes all the time, which was something he would've never expected from the kid. Sometimes he reminded Richie of Eddie, except Will didn't get pissed at every other conversation they had.

It was almost a welcome change. Almost.

.

By the time they actually made it to the top, Richie was sweating his balls off. He was tempted to take off his shirt but also knew that the glaring sun was leaving his face looking like a tomato as it was, and he didn't need the rest of him looking the same. They were all tired, irritated, and looking ready go collapse on the spot, except maybe for Dustin. He must've eaten a bowl of Too Enthusiastic For My Own Goodcereal this morning, because his positive attitude was making Richie want to stab him at the moment.

"Made it," the Henderson kid said, grinning at them all.

Don't kill him. Don't kill him.

"Yeah, it only took five hours," Max snipped at him as she sat down on the grass.

"I'm living here now," Richie said hotly, setting down the case he'd relieved Max off earlier (because he's such a gentleman). He plopped down right next to her and crossed his arms. "I made it up, I'm not fucking going back down."

"Why couldn't we just play D&D?" Will asked.

Richie nodded. He would've rather watched them play D&D (ignore them as they play and read a comic instead) than have to hike up that fucking hill.

"I agree. D&D has air conditioning," Ross said from where she stood. She threw her head back and looked up, shaking her fists at the sky. "Where's the air conditioning up here?" She dropped onto her knees and took a deep breath, pushing her hair out of her face. Richie wondered if she regretted not bringing a pony tail.

"Ross," Richie said, pulling in her attention. "You. Me. My house. AC. Ice cream. My mom's lemonade."

She arched an eyebrow at him.

"Only catch: no clothes."

She stared at him for a moment before looking over to Dustin. "That might be worth it."

The others all gave tired chuckles, and Dustin leaned over to swat at her.

"You're all dramatic," he said.

"I'm not dramatic, I'm thirsty," Lucas said, sitting down next to Ross. "So thirsty." He unscrewed the canteen he had hung around his neck and proceeded to completely drain it within a matter of seconds.

"Did you seriouslyjust drink the rest of our water?" Max asked him, looking like the poster child of unimpressed girlfriends.

This should be good.

Lucas paused for a second (looking a bit scared) before he spit what little water he still had in his mouth back into the canteen. The smile he wore looked like it was hurting his face as he held it out to her.

"Oh, that's golden," Richie laughed from the grass. "Lukey Pooky sure is a charmer, huh, Mayfield?" He rolled out of the way as she leaned over to hit him.

For the next hour or two, they worked on setting up Dustin's radio, Cerebro, as he insisted Richie call it. He gave them instructions the whole time, leading them like the head of some dysfunctional construction crew. There was the occasional complaining, but surprisingly from everyone but Richie.

"That seems backwards to me," Lucas said when Dustin pointed it out. He squinted his eyes at Richie and asked, "You okay? Is the heat getting to you."

"Now, I'm feelin' just fine, darlin', but bless your sweet heart for askin'," he said with a Southern Belle accent. But then he shrugged and dropped it as he said, "Back in Derry, me and my friends made an underground club house. Haystack was a natural born architect or some shit, he helped us build a dam at the barrens, too. We got in trouble for it, but it was still cool."

"An underground club house?" Max asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Sounds awesome," Will said.

Richie nodded. "Oh yeah. There was a hammock and you could only get in through a trap door in the ground. Stanley bought everyone these fucking stupid shower caps so spiders wouldn't get in our hair and shit."

"Hey, spiders are no joke," Ross said, pointing at him. "Nothing should have that many legs."

"You're going to have an aneurysm when you discover these things called millipedes," he said to her.

"Alright, we're off topic," Dustin said, stopping the would-be-argument in it's tracks. "Let's get back to work. The sooner we finish this the better."

When they finally did get the thing finished and set up, Richie had to admit that he was kind of proud of it. It was lopsided and looked like it was seconds away from collapsing, but it was up all the same.

Dimly, he thought of how much better it would probably look if Ben were here helping.

"Pretty impressive, right?" Dustin asked when they all took a few steps back to take it in.

"Almost as impressive as my wang," Richie said without missing a beat.

They all gave him bland looks and he snickered. He couldn't help himself. He waved for Dustin to continue with whatever they were to do next.

"Well, on that note, ready to meet my love?"

"Okay, sure," Max said.

"Yeah," Will agreed. Dustin sat himself down on the ground and picked up the radio, switching it on and holding it do his lips.

"Suzie, this is Dustin," he said with a smile. "Do you copy? Over."

He waited a moment for a response as static filled the air. When nothing came over, he looked up at them and help up a finger.

"One sec. She's probably...she's still there." He speaks into the radio again, "Suzie, this is Dustin. Do you copy? Over."

Above him, they all exchange glances.

"I'm sure she's still there. It's just.."

"Yeah," Lucas nodded and it's reassurance.

"You know, maybe she's like, busy or—"

"Yeah."

"It could be around dinner time."

"Yup," Max said as Lucas hummed along with her.

Dustin help up his hands like what can ya do?and then went back to the radio.

"Suzie, do you copy? This is Dustin. Over."

.

An hour or so later and Dustin was still at it. The moon was high up above them and the temperature had dropped to something relatively bearable without blankets. Dustin was on his feet, speaking into the radio while everyone else was sprawled out on the ground.

"Suzie! This is Dustin. Do you copy?" At this point, the kid sounded like a broken record player. "Over."

Richie had gotten used to the sound of the static after hearing it for so long. The rest of them had set up camp in the grass nearly 10 minutes after Henderson's failed attempts at contacting his girlfriend. At first Richie cracked all kinds of jokes, but not only was it seeming to actually upset Dustin, but it was ticking off Max's especially short fuse for the day. She'd be kinda snappy after Lucas pointed out her zit.

The couple was using the dufflebag as a makeshift pillow beneath their heads, and only a few feet away Richie, Will, and Ross were laying in some sort of triangle, using each other's stomachs as pillows. Ross's head was on Will's stomach, Will's on Richie's, and Richie's on Ross's. They were all pressed so close together that the body heat kept him from complaining about the slight breeze.

Will had his eyes closed but would occasionally glance over in Dustin's direction like he had to make sure the guy was doing okay after every lack of response. Richie was staring at the sky, trying to spy the stars between the clouds (which he could never map out. He only knew the Big Dipper and that was because Ross taught him). Ross herself had her eyes closed, and the steady tempo of her breathing made Richie assume she was sleeping.

"Suzie," Dustin repeated for the millionth time. "This is your Dustin. Do you copy? Over."

More static.

"Suzie—"

"Dustin, come on," Max snapped out. "She's not there."

"She's there, alright?" He said stubbornly. "She'll pick up."

That girl was not picking up any time soon, but Dustin wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Will sat up suddenly, startling Ross awake. "Maybe Cerebro doesn't work."

"Or maybe Suzie doesn't exist!" It seemed that Lucas had adjusted his temper to Max's.

"She exists!"

"She's a genius and she's hotter than Phoebe Cates? No girl is that perfect," Lucas said. Wrong choice of words, buddy.

"Is that so?" Max asked, sitting up straight.

Sinclair stumbled over his words. "I mea...you're perfect. I—I mean, like, per—perfect in your own way. In your special—in your own special way."

Wow.

"Nice save, Sinclair," Richie said. Ross snorted in her spot.

To his surprise, Max didn't bite Lucas's head off.

"Relax, I was teasing," she said instead with a chuckle. Then her voice turned to ice. "I'm obviously perfect and Dustin's obviously lying."

Everyone's smile at their silly banter dropped as Max stood up and extended her hand to Lucas.

"Come on, Don Juan." She pulled him into his feet and together they began to walk off.

It was pretty clear where they were going but Dustin felt the need to ask anyway. "Where are you going?"

"Home," Max said over her shoulder.

They started in a jog down the hill, and Will started to get up, pushing on Ross gently to get her to do the same.

Dustin was still facing the retreating forms of Max and Lucas when he said, "And then there were four."

He turned to face them and his shoulders slumped when he found them standing.

Poor guy. He's getting disappointed left and right.

"Um...it's late," Will said. Ross yawned and set and hand in his shoulder.

"I promised my dad that I would let Miss B drive me home," she explained, sleep still lacing her voice.

"Sorry," Will offered. "Maybe tomorrow we can play D&D? Or something fun. Like we used to?"

"Yeah, sure," Dustin said.

"Welcome home," Will said with a smile.

Ross gave Dustin a quick hug. "I believe you about Suzie. See you later. Bye, Richie."

"See ya guys," Richie said as they started to jog off.

"I don't suppose you believe me, do you?" Dustin asked once they descended past their range of sight.

Richie scooted across the grass until he was next to the radio and waited for Dustin to sit down across from him.

He decided to be honest, for some reason.

"At first, not really. But I don't see why you'd have any reason to like about it. Plus, Ross thinks you're telling the truth, so..." He shrugged like it was no big deal, and Dustin raised his eyebrow.

"You believe me because Ross believed me?" He asked skeptically.

"I don't know if any of you guys have noticed, but she has this uncanny ability to tell when other people are lying," Richie told him. "She's like a human lie detector."

Dustin opened his mouth to respond because no, none of them had noticed, but then paused. He screwed up his face, closed his mouth, and looked off into the distance like he was remembering something. He opened his mouth once more to respond, but was suddenly cut off by the distorted noises that had began to burst from the radio.

"Shit," he exclaimed, bending over to reach for the hand held. He pulled it towards him and spoke into it, "Suzie? Suzie, is that you?"

Richie was surprised at the gruff, deep voice that came though, clearly not English or female.

"That's Suzie?!" He asked incredulously.

"Of course not!" Dustin hissed at him. He cranked up the volume like that would help the quality of the sound coming through. It didn't, but they were still able to realize that the language was familiar, and shared a glance.

"Is that fucking Russian?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own the ideas, characters, or plot of Stranger Things or IT**

* * *

**A/N: Hey guys, I know it's been a while. I'd just like you guys to know that even if it takes me over a month to update, that doesn't mean I'm not going to continue this story. I have every intention to finish it, and if I don't it's probably because I've died or something. I'm just struggling with writing, and I think it's because it's become less about doing it for fun and because I enjoy it and more so about just pleasing all of you guy. Which don't get me wrong, I want you guys to like it and your reviews and stuff really motivate me! I'm just having trouble with self motivation, if that makes sense? Anywho, this chapter is mostly just the El and Max mall scene (plus Ross of course), nothing insanely big or actiony. Next chapter is when things start to pick up. Regardless, I still hope you enjoy it! Sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors. Hope you like it! **

**-blockthewriter**

* * *

Ross winced as the skateboard slipped out from underneath Max and she hit the ground with hard thud. The board rolled across the street and hit the curb as Max groaned loudly from her spot on the cement.

"That one looked like it hurt," Ross commented. Well, every single fall Max has taken so far looked like it hurt, if she was going to be honest. Each time the other redhead took it like a champ and hopped back on her feet, and Ross admired her determination.

Max stared up at the sky for a second before sucking in a deep breath and saying, "I'm fine." She tilted her head to spy a look at Ross. "Sure you don't wanna try?"

Ross glanced to the box of bandaids that sat (ready to be used) on the ground next to her, the skateboard by the curb, and then back to Max, who had rolled over and was staring at her hopefully.

She didn't want to be a pussy and say no, but she also didn't want to fall over. As someone who did things that could potentially hurt her without hesitation, she for some reason was just really nervous to try out the skateboard. That was basically just asking for it. She might've been more compliant if she hadn't sat and watched Max fall over and over again. Half their bandaids were gone already!

But her pride got the better of her as she heard a voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Richie tell her _pull up your big girl pants and get on the fucking board you pansy._

Richie had been learning to skateboard from Max. If he could do it, Ross could do it too.

"I guess," she sighed finally, shrugging her shoulders.

"Sweet!" Max cheered as she scrambled to her feet and went to grab the board. "Okay, come out over here."

She sat the board down in the middle of the street and waited as Ross approached slowly.

"I mean, I just stand on it and push off the ground, right?" she asked. It couldn't be too hard.

"Basically, yeah." She held out her hands for Ross to grab onto and gestured for her to put one foot on the board. "It's all about balance."

Ross nodded and settled her foot in the middle of the board, before Max corrected her.

"Put your right foot in first, right there. You'll use your left foot to push off."

"Alright."

"Okay, your right foot is kind of like your base, it doesn't leave the board," she added, before slowly moving her hands away. "Now push off like you saw me do."

Ross wobbled on the board as she pushed off, and rolled forward a few feet before she nearly lost her balance. She planted her foot on the ground so she wouldn't fall flat on her ass.

Max started back towards her and said, "Bend your legs when you go. Here." She reached out for Ross's hands again and used one of her feet to point at the board. "You have to put your left foot back here at the end, like that."

She tapped her toe in the area she meant, and held Ross steady as she hesitantly placed her left foot down so both her feet were on the board.

"Most of your weight will be on your right foot, so—"

Ross shrieked as she leaned to far forward and the board suddenly rolled backwards out from underneath her. The only reason she didn't shatter her knees on the cement was because Max had a firm hold on her hands and kept her upright.

"Shit," Ross said breathlessly, laughing as Max helped her regain her balance. The other redhead laughed, too, and they both turned to spy where the board went.

They weren't expecting to see Eleven standing there, the board bumping into her ankles harmlessly as she watched them.

It was surprising to see her out, unannounced and without Mike tethered to her side. Especially here at Max's house, of all places.

The tension between the two was still a bit high (which Max wasn't quite sure where it had even come from in the first place), although it had gotten infinitely better than when they first met. But they still didn't get along enough for El to just randomly show up at her house. It was definitely a first.

El picked up the board and marched towards them, with an expression that didn't exactly look friendly.

"Hey, El," Ross said, eyebrows furrowed.

She stopped directly in front of them. "Hi."

"Hi?" Max responded.

She stared at the two for a second before asking, "Can we talk?"

.

They were in Max's room now, listening to El as she relayed the story to them. From the sounds of it, Mike had gone home early last night after Hopper said something had happened to his Grandma, and when she called to asked about it, he lied to her.

Max was pacing back and forth, taking in the information with an intensity that Ross found slightly unnerving.

"And then he said he—he missed me," El finished. "And then he just hung up."

"Ouch," Ross muttered, feeling sorry for the girl. That was kind of a douche move on Mike's part.

"He's a piece of shit," Max spat out, stopping in front of the two on the bed.

"What?" they both asked at the same time.

"Mike doesn't have jack shit to do today," Max seethed, "and his Nana obviously isn't sick."

"Yeah, his mom kinda gave that away," Ross muttered, confused on why Max was so angry all of a sudden.

She felt bad for Eleven, of course she did. Mike shouldn't have lied and hung up on her like that. But Ross also wasn't mad at him for that. That was between them. It would take a lot for her to get mad at one of her best friends on someone else's behalf.

"He's lying," Max continued. "I guarantee you, him and Lucas are playing Atari right now."

"But friends don't lie," El said softly, a soft sort of sadness picking at the edges of her tone.

"Yeah, well, boyfriends lie," Max said, and Ross got the feeling this wasn't just about El and Mike. "All the time."

.

"She knows I'm lying," Mike groaned. "She knowsI'm lying!"

Richie rolled his eyes as Mike continued to wear out the carpet with all of his pacing and complaining. The boys, excluding Dustin, were all in the Wheeler's basement, hanging out. Richie was on the couch tryingto read a comic book. Lucas was discussing the 'situation' with Mike. And Will was over at the table, setting up for one of their Dungeons and Dragons games.

"I don't even understand," Lucas cut into Mike's rambling. "Why lie in the first place?"

"Hopper," Mike spat out. "He threatened me."

Richie peeked at them over the top of the comic book, a grin splitting into his face. "And now I'm interested."

"Did he say he'd kill you?" Lucas asked.

"What? No."

"Did he say he'd hurt you?" Richie asked.

"No."

"So then, what's the big deal?" Lucas countered, raising his eyebrows.

"The big deal is that if I don't do what he says, then he'll stop me from seeing El," Mike explained. "Like. Permanently."

"Is the sex that good?" Richie asked doubtfully.

Mike whirled towards him and ripped the comic book from his hands. "This is serious, Rich! You guys don't understand!"

"Right, well don't take it out on the comic!" Richie exclaimed, holding his hands out.

Mike tossed it onto the couch, shaking his head. "He's crazy," he continued, referring to Hopper. "He's lost his mind."

"Hey, guys," Will spoke up. "I'm almost set up here."

Poor Wilbur was completely ignored.

"I had no choice!" Mike rolled on. "I really had no choice."

Richie considered mentioning how he obviously had the choice to just tell the damn girl that her dad thought they were spending too much time together. Explain that the options were either Hang Out Less But Still Get To Hang Out or Hang Out Until Hopper Makes Us Stop. But he decided not to, because it wasn't his problem and watching Mike fret was almost amusing.

"I just wish you'd consulted me," Lucas said, like he was Mike's mentor or something. "Because with the way you handled this, you're in deep shit."

.

Max sat on the bed next to them, and started instructing El like he was her mentor or something.

"You're going to stop calling him. You're going to ignore it when he calls you. As far as you're concerned, he doesn't exist."

"Doesn't exist?" El asked hesitantly.

Ross raised her eyebrows, confused on where this was going but also mildly interested.

"He treated you like garbage, you're gonna treat him like garbage," Max said simply. "Give him a taste of his own medicine."

"Or we could go to his house and just confront him about it?" Ross suggested.

"That too, but it's less fun."

El glanced between the two of them for a moment, before settling her eyes on Max.

"Give him his own medicine."

Ross shrugged. She'd done her part. Can't say she didn't try. Oh well.

"Exactly," Max continued with a smirk. "And if he doesn't fix this, if he doesn't explain himself, dump his ass."

.

Richie barely snatched the comic up before Mike sat on. The Wheeler boy groaned in frustration.

"I'm not gonna lie," Lucas said. "It's gonna be bad."

Mike groaned again, louder this time.

"But...you can fix this," Lucas continued confidently.

"He can?"

"I can?"

"It's just one little mistake," he said with a shrug, standing up. "I've made hundreds. Thousands. Max has dumped me five times."

"Then are we sure you should be giving relationship advice?" Richie asked.

"I've had the most experience out of all us," Lucas retorted. "Every time she's dumped me, what have I done? Huh? Have I despaired? No. I've marched back into battle, and I've won her back every—single—freaking—time."

"How?" Mike asked.

"Yeah," Richie said. "I don't even know how you managed that."

"I was just going to ask Ross," Mike muttered, shaking his head. "She's a girl. She would know what to do."

"You got one point right, she's a girl," Lucas said. "But all girls think the same. Even if they don't, they side with each other just out of spite for us."

"I don't think she would," Mike shrugged, looking over to Richie. His lookalike shrugged, too.

"Come on man," Lucas said, drawing his attention back in. "Trust me on this. You cannot ask Ross for advice."

"Then what do I do?"

"I'll show you. Come on."

.

"Come on," Max said, pulling the two of them up and off of her bed with a smile.

"Where are we going?" El asked.

"To have some fun. There's more to life than stupid boys, you know."

.

Lucas and Mike raced towards the stairs, and Richie hopped up after them.

"Wait, guys!" Will shouted as they hit the stairs. "What about the game?"

"It'll have to wait, Wilson!"

.

"So, what do you think?" Max asked as they got off the bus.

Starcourt Mall stood before them, and El stared at it with wide eyes. She didn't answer the question, and the three of them slowed to a stop.

It registered to Ross that Eleven had never seen the mall before. They'd gone there so many times this summer, it was easy to forget that they didn't always have the whole Party with them.

"What's wrong?" Max asked.

"Too many people," was the quiet response. Her eyes were blown wide and constantly darting through the crowd of people.

Ross leaned over to Max and said, "This is probably the most people she's ever been around at once."

"Against the rules," El said.

"Seriously?" Max asked. "You have superpowers! What's the worst that could happen?"

"Someone finds out she has super powers," Ross said blandly.

"Well, she just won't use them. Right, El?"

"Right," she said with a firm nod.

She couldn't stop staring at everything once they got inside, eliciting wide grins from her two friends. Ross couldn't blame her though. The neon lights, bustling of people, and buzzing of noises drew her in, too.

"Sooo," Max dragged out, pulling them both to a stop and turning around to stand in front of them. "What should we do first?"

El glanced at them before her eyes were drawn back to everything else.

"You've never been shopping before, have you?" Max asked with a laugh.

Eleven shook her head, which was to be expected.

"You really think _Hopper_ would take her shopping?" Ross asked with a smirk.

"Point taken. Well then, I guess we're just gonna have to try everything." Ross watched as El turned in slow circles, continuing to take everything in, and something caught Max's eye.

"Ohh!" She cheered, grabbing their hands. "Come on!"

.

Richie nudged Will with his elbow as they walked out of JCPennys, with nothing to show for when it came to Mike's apology gift. When he got the little guy's attention (Will _was_ shorter than him) he nodded over to three familiar girls who were bee lining it towards The Gap.

Max was in the lead, dragging Ross and El (was she even supposed to be there?) by the hand.

"Looks who's here," he said with a smirk.

"Think they noticed?" Will asked, smiling at the irony.

"Who? The girls or our twin Casanovas here?"

"Both."

"Neither."

"I just—I don't understand what we're looking for," Mike exclaimed. Will and Richie turned their attention back to what was at hand when the girls disappeared into the shop.

"Something pretty and shiny," Lucas advised, "that says I'm sorry."

"What, just something that literally says I'm sorry?"

"No!"

Richie took a few extra steps to catch up to them, inserting himself between the two with a grin.

"I thought you were supposed to be smart, Mikey."

.

Ross and Max followed El as she wondered through the store, running her fingertips across the different kinds of clothing. She seemed nearly overwhelmed at everything around them, not accustomed to the thought of wearing anything aside from sweats and big flannels.

Ross was nearly the same way when she first stepped foot in the store. She'd been shopping before, of course, with her dad and even Joyce on occasion. But she'd never been in a store with as many options, colors, or designs like the one in Starcourt. When her and Max went for the first time, with the boys trailing close behind, it had been quite the trip. Needless to say, they'd nearly been kicked out.

Now she went shopping quite often with Max, and even the boys from time to time. She never really got anything, nor did her company, mainly because they didn't have a lot of money in their pockets. But she didn't mind passing time inside stores, looking at outfits and sneakers with Max and different Hawaiian shirts with Richie.

El pulled to a stop in front of a small set up of clothes, where a mannequin sat on top wearing a blue shirt.

"Do you like it?" Max asked, catching the way she was eying the piece of cloth.

"How do I know," El said slowly, turning to peer at them shyly, "what I like?"

Ross's mouth dropped open. "You're kidding, right?" Max elbowed her.

"Just try it on and see if it feels like you," Max advised, picking up one of the shirts and holding it out for her.

"Like me?"

Ross couldn't believe it. Was El so sheltered and influenced that she didn't even know what she liked or not?

"Yeah," Max said. "Not Hopper. Not Mike. You."

"You'll know what she means when it happens," Ross said, turning away from them so they couldn't see her frown. She ran her hand across a collection of shirts. "Here, do you like this color?"

A few minutes later they sent El into the dressing room with her arms full of different outfits to try on, trying to find something that suited her.

.

They were in the jewelry store now, and Richie was tailing Mike, who was tailing Lucas, like a lost puppy as they browsed through all the different options. Will, who was tailing Richie, kept making deep sighs every time they stopped to look at something longer than a minute.

Richie felt the boy's pain, but was also getting sort of annoyed. He loved Will dearly, but he could at least try to have fun or look for humor in the situation. He might've been more empathetic if he knew that Will wanted to do something _aside_ from play Dungeons and Dragons.

Mike paused at one of the glasses cases and bent over, eyeing a little tiny charm that was shaped like a teddy bear.

"Excuse me, sir?" Mike asked, and the associate walked over to them. He was an older guy who looked bored and slightly suspicious by their presence there in the store.

"Mhmm?" The man hummer, glancing down the follow Mike's opined finger.

"How much for this little teddy bear right here?"

A knowing look slipped onto the man's face, and a second later they were leaving empty handed.

Richie couldn't stop laughing. He didn't know what was funnier. The price for that little tiny teddy bear, or Mike's face when he heard it.

"Three hundred?" Lucas asked aloud to no one in particular, flabbergasted. "Three hundred?"

Mike clenched his fist and shook his head. "I should've shoved that teddy bear right up his—"

"Whoa there, Michael!" Richie exclaimed, grinning at the looks some lady was giving them as they passed by. "I think I'm rubbing off on you."

.

As El was changing, Ross and Max were looking around for things that might suit them while discussing the girl's apparent lack of opinion. Max was quick to blame it on Hopper and Mike, but Ross dismissed the idea.

"I don't think we can blame that on Mike and Hopper," she said, watching Max pick up a pair of yellow sunglasses. "Not all of it, anyway."

"You don't think so?" She asked, turning her head left and right. "Mike's been kind of manipulative, and she's always holed up with one of them."

Ross ignored the part about Mike being manipulative and shook her head. "No, I think a lot of it is from...you know, her time in the lab and stuff."

She finished it quietly, and Max stilled, pulling the glasses of of her face and meeting Ross's eyes. She blinked a few times before looking away. "That makes sense," she said softly. "Sometimes I just...I forget, you know? What happened to her."

Ross nodded, running her fingers over a stack of shorts. "I get it. I—I forget, too. Sometimes. It's easy to not remember when things are so normal now."

"Yeah," the other redhead nodded, folding the glasses back up. They stood there in silence for a few seconds before Max held up the glasses. "I don't like these ones. They fit weird."

Picking up the new conversation topic and running with it, Ross plucked a red pair from the rack and swapped her. "Try these ones, maybe?"

Max slid them on and checked herself out in the mirror. "Do they look okay with my hair?"

She smiled and nodded. "Oh yeah. It looks good. It looks..." she trailed off and squinted at Max with a smirk, holding up her fingers to make a frame around her face. "Bold. Very fitting."

Max laughed and batted her hands away. "Okay, okay. Try on these green ones."

.

While looking for another place, with cheaper prices, they happened to stop in front of store where the mannequins wore bras and panties and things that Richie might find in a dirty magazine.

He nodded approvingly and hosted a wide grin, nudging Will and Mike on either side of him.

"I think we're finally getting somewhere boys," he said. He glanced over to look at them, because they didn't even honor him with a snarky comment back.

When he saw their wide eyes and dropped jaws, he could't help but break out into peels of laughter that attracted the attention of several girls in the store.

They looked their way and immediately the other boys started to scamper off, dragging Richie behind them by the elbow.

.

Eventually, El came out of the fitting room wearing an outfit that it seemed she really enjoyed. She struck a few poses and smiled at them in the mirror.

"Looks great on you," Ross said with a grin, admiring the black romper-styled outfit with colored patterns on it.

Ross herself mostly wore just highwaisted shorts and old T-shirts of her dad's, with the occasional nice article that she'd gotten with Max. While she wouldn't mind wearing outfits like most of the popular girls did, or like the one El was wearing now, she just didn't think they would suit her very well.

The got El to try on a few more outfits, and walked out of the store with a new wardrobe for her. Max had ended up getting those red sunglasses she'd tried on after getting both Ross and El's approval. And Ross left with a handful of scrunchies, because the ponytails she normally used had a bad habit of getting tangled in her hair or just snapping apart. Max swore by scrunchies, apparently, and so El got some, too.

.

They found themselves in a perfume shop (Richie wasn't sure what it was to be called) next, smelling the different fragrances. Mike wasn't too keen on the perfume idea, but they were coming up short on everything else.

Richie made a face when he sniffed at a bottle labeled _Warmth & Love_ that smelled way too strongly of cinnamon and apple pie. He made a sour face and held it over to Lucas, who had a similar reaction. He scrunched up his nose and tried to wave the smell away.

Richie picked up a purple bottle next and handed it to him, thinking that maybe the new smell would be better than the last. "Try this one."

Lucas hastily sprayed it around, and sniffed the air, making an impressed face after a second. He waved his hand around in Richie's direction, like he was trying to waft the smell in his direction. Richie leaned forward to get a whiff. It smelled like flowers, and he nodded approvingly.

"Hey, Mike," Lucas said, turning to his other side. He held up the bottle and sprayed it right as the Wheeler boy looked up at him.

"Uh!" Mike exclaimed, slamming the bottle he had in his hand back onto the counter. His hands went back up over his face, and Lucas and Richie laughed when he started to squeal.

.

Max had pulled them over to Flash Studio next, where they could dress up and get their pictures taken, Max had explained. Ross had heard and seen it before of course, but she wasn't sure that the wearing fake fancy dresses, gaudy jewelry and hair props was her. And it wasn't really, but she still managed to have a blast while striking poses with Max and El along side her. It didn't help the the camera mane was constantly egging them on. It was a bit awkward at first, but then they really played into his encouragements to "let loose", and it was uphill from there.

"That's it girls!" He exclaimed from behind he camera. "Keep it up!"

They did all kinds of poses, to dramatic ones, serious ones, and ridiculous ones, and tried in different outfits to match. Five wardrobe changes and a bajillion pictures later, they left Flash Studio for a shoe store.

El had never walked in heels before, and Max insisted that they try it out. Her and Ross went first to "show how it's done" despite them still giggling while stumbling around with jiggly knees and ankles.

When it was El's turn, she tripped after four steps, sending the trio into a fit of laughter that had a group of older teenage girls sending them rather judgmental looks.

The giggling paused for a moment as the exchanged looks, waiting for the gang of girls to turn their heads with hard eye rolls.

They broke into soft laughs as Ross said, "If they roll their eyes any harder they might be able to see their brain!" This sent them into another loud fit of giggles, and the group of teenage girls give them another obnoxious, disgusted look. One of the girls (a redhead with hair that was clearly permed) whispered something to the others. They turned and all left the store together.

Ross turned to El after they watched the posse leave, mischief in her eyes, and asked, "Think you can use your powers just this once?"

A few minutes later, they were hiding behind a pillar at the food court, where they had followed the small group of older girls. Said teenagers were talking to an attractive boy in front of the Orange Julius shop, where they'd gotten drinks.

"Do you see her?" Max whispered to El, who gave a stern nod.

Ross and Max fell quiet as El focused intently. A few seconds later, the redheaded girl's drink exploded in her hand. The smoothie splattered over her and everyone else within five feet, eliciting high pitched squeals.

Ross's mouth dropped and she laughed at the scene. She couldn't believe that they'd actually done that. The three of them sat behind the pillar and laughed until they cried, and Max quickly pulled them up and away from the prying eyes they'd caught the attention of.

"See?" She asked as they ran off. "What did I tell you? There's more to life than stupid boys."

.

"Can we please play D&D now?" Will asked for the umpteenth time that day. He voice was borderline whiney, and it agitated the others.

"No," Lucas and Mike said at once.

"Let then wallow in their self pity, Wilfred," Richie sighed, closing his eyes as he leaned back on the bench.

They'd given up on the treasure hunt, figuring that Mike wouldn't be able to find anything for Eleven; and if he could, he couldn't afford it.

"This is stupid!" Will snapped. "We aren't even doing anything!"

"I'm thinking!" Lucas retorted sharply. Richie resisted the temptation to make some crude joke about just what he was thinking about.

"Why don't you just call her and apologize?"

"I can't!" Mike exclaimed.

"Your funeral," Richie muttered, ignoring the frustrated sigh that Will gave.

.

"We've got our first sentence."

Ross blinked as Steve wheeled around in his spot to look at Robin, who had just peeked her head out of the little sliding window that led to the back room.

"Oh, seriously?" He asked, walking up to the window, still holding El and Max's ice cream comes. Ross frowned a bit.

"What do you think they're talking about?" She asked aloud, and Max gave her a sly smile.

"You only want to know because it's Steve," she said, chuckling as Ross raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah, so?" She asked, a smile creeping onto her face. "He's good looking. And charming!"

"You're in love!" Max cooed playfully, leaning into Ross, who scoffed.

Before she could retort, El said, "I thought you liked Richie." She squinted at Eleven, at first thinking it was a joke. But the innocent look on the girl's face said otherwise, and Ross shook her head lightly.

"Nah, me and Richie are just friends."

"Might want to tell Richie that," Max said. "He flirts with you all the time."

"Yeah, but he—"

"Okay, here you go," Steve said, turning back around to them. "You got a strawberry and then a vanilla with sprinkles, extra whipped cream."

He passed the cones across the counter, and Max and El grabbed their respective ones.

"Thanks," They said simultaneously, taking the first lick.

"I'll get yours, Ross," Steve said, pointing a finger gun in her direction as he stepped over to grab a cone. Ross smiled as he started to scoop up the mint chocolate chip she'd requested, and he kept glancing back at them a few times.

He paused for a second, gesturing to El with his spoon. "Wait a second. Are you even allowed to be here?"

The three girls looked at each other and smiled widely. Max and El started to giggled, and Ross raised her eyebrows at Steve.

"Do you really want the responsibility of knowing?" She asked him.

He stared at her for a second, processing her words (and her face, she wished), before shaking his head.

"No, you're right. Never mind." He handed her the ice cream cone. "Don't get into trouble, please."

Max grabbed a hold of her hand and behind to pull her away as Ross gave him a charming smile.

"No promises!"

She wheeled around and hooked arms with Eleven and Max, laughing as they walked out, and leaving a bewildered and suspicious Steve behind the counter.

"As I was saying," Ross started, licking her ice cream. "Richie would first with you guys, too, if you were single. It's probably like, breaking some guy code, if he were to do it now or something."

"You might be right," Max admitted. "He did stop flirting with me after me and Lucas started dating." Which was true. He'd constantly referred to the time she almost took off her brother's nuts with a spiked bat as "sexy" and "the hottest thing he'd seen since Eddie's mother". The jokes stopped right after they'd officially become a couple, but he'd make a spare joke every now and then.

"Exactly."

"But," Max stressed, "you guys would probably be cute together."

Ross rolled her eyes. "Aren't we trying to teach Eleven that boys aren't everything?"

"They aren't," Max laughed. "I'm just saying!"

"Well stop saying," she said, elbowing Max playfully. "We're just friends. Best friends."

"Mike says you guys are best friends," El noted. "You don't act like that with him."

"Yeah, I know. But Mike and Richie are different."

El's face turned sour. "Richie doesn't lie?"

"Mmmm, more like Richie just doesn't know when to be quiet," Ross snorted.

"You can say that again," Max said.

They all laughed, walking out of the doors to the mall.

"Wanna trade," Max asked El, holding her ice cream up. They laughed and swapped cones, moving out towards the curb of the street. The Mayfield girl started to slow, and Ross slipped her arm out from her elbow, holding her cone up to El.

"Ever had mint before?"

El leaned forward and took a lick, just as Max spoke up from behind them.

"Oh, you've gotta he shitting me."

They turned around in unison, and at first Ross thought it was about the ice cream (Max didn't like mint), but then she followed the other ginger's gaze and saw what exactly grabbed her attention.

The boys—their boys (missing Dustin)—we're pulling their bikes out of the racks along the side of the mall. Including Mike, who had told El he wouldn't be going out.

Ross raised her eyebrows as Max squared her shoulders and stalked towards them, and her and El followed behind slowly.

"Isn't this a nice surprise," Max drawled, in the same tone she always used when Lucas pissed her off.

The expressions on their faces when they turned over to look at them was priceless. Will and Richie looked unphased, and the latter even looked amused to see them. Lucas eye's were the size of dinner plates as he stared at El, and Mike's jaw dropped along with his bike.

Mike pointed at El, gaping at her for a few seconds before asking in a strained voice, "What are you doing here?"

Max and Ross turned to look at the brunette girl, waiting to see what she would say.

"Shopping," was all she offered.

"This is her new style," Max smirked, gesturing towards the new outfit. "What do you think?"

"What is wrong with you?" He spit at Max, eyebrows slanting in anger. He turned to Ross next. "You know she's not allowed to be here!"

"What is she," Max sneered," your little pet?"

"Yeah," El jumped in, clearly following Max's lead. "Am I your pet?"

"What? No!"

"Then why do you treat me like garbage?"

Over Mike's shoulder, Ross met eyes with Richie, who raised his eyebrows at her. She smirked in response and shrugged back.

"What?" Mike asked.

"You said Nana was sick," El said.

"She is," Mike lied. It was painfully obvious, to everyone, that he wasn't telling the truth. "She is! She is sick."

He turned to Lucas and gave a hard nod, who quickly jumped in on it.

"Yeah, sick—she's sick!" He exclaimed unconvincingly.

"She's sick," Mike repeated.

Lucas realized that Mike didn't have anything other than that to say, and quickly tried to save his ass. "She's super sick. That's why we're here, actually."

"Yeah, we're shopping," Mike nodded, throwing a hand in the direction of the doors to the mall. He laughed nervously. "Not for us, but for her, for Nana!"

"For Nana!"

Behind them, Richie's shook his head at their lame excuses while Will pinched the bridge of his nose. Max cocked her head at their blatant lies.

"Also," Mike added, "we're here to get a gift for you."

El stared at him with furrowed eyebrows, her lack of expression clearly just making the kid more anxious. Ross is almost concerned she's going to crush her ice cream cone in her hand considering how tight she's holding it.

"It's just, we couldn't find anything that suited you, and I only have like, $3.50, so it's hard—"

"Super hard," Lucas jumped in. "It's—isn't expensive."

"You lie," El said to Mike, hardly sparing Lucas a glance. "Why do you lie?"

Mike opened and closed his mouth a few time, looking anywhere but at her, clearly not sure what to say. El looked behind him as the bus they were going to wait for pulled up to the curb, squealing to a stop.

She faced back forward, to Mike's nervous gaze, and took a few steps forward to him.

"I dump your ass."

Ross huffed out an incredulous laugh. Max's mouth dropped open. Mike looked like he'd just been slapped in the face. Lucas looked like he couldn't comprehend what had happened. And Richie and Will wore twin expression, like Christmas had come early.

El turned around without another word and begins towards the bus. Max, after glancing once more between the ex-couple, followed. Ross watched them go for a second, before turning to the boys with a smile.

"I'll call your house later and let you know if I'm going to stay the night," Ross said to Mike, who moved his gaze from his retreating ex-girlfriend to her. "Max mentioned another sleep over."

He blinked at her. "But—but I—"

"You should have told her the truth, Mike," she said, shrugging at him. "Or in the very least, asked me for advice before Lucas. No offense."

"But I—"Lucas started weakly, ready to defend himself, but then he paused. Bowing his head, he waved her off. "None taken."

Ross smiled at them, taking a lick of her ice cream cone. She winked at Will and Richie, who both looked like idiots with the huge grins they were wearing, and spun off to join the other two girls on the bus.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own the idea, characters, or plot of Stranger Things or IT.**

* * *

**A/N: Hello, I'm back! Here's chapter 4! Wanted to give thanks for anyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited, it means a lot. Don't be afraid to tell me what you think of the story! Like hopefully don't shred me to pieces, but I'm definitely open to feedback! Hope you guys enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

They'd gone to the Hoppers Cabin after the mall, and were lounging around El's room. The music was playing loudly as Max dancing across the floor, singing into a hairbrush. El was on the foot of her bed, bobbing up and down to the beat while looking at some magazines Max had given her. Ross was stretched out next to her, taking one of the weird quizzes from the girly magazines that would predict things about her future like if she would ever star in a movie or find true love.

She was reading a question about if she was more of a cat or dog person when Max stopped singing and asked El, "Oh, you found Ralph Macchio."

"Macchio?" El asked, obviously unfamiliar with the name.

Ross pulled the magazine to her chest and looked at Max.

"He's the guy from Karate Kid, right?" she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"He _is_ the Karate Kid," Max laughed. She raised her arm and turned to El, swinging it down swiftly while shouting, "Hai-yah!"

Ross sat up and looked back to the magazine as the too giggled. She was pretty sure she'd have to go with dogs. Cats weren't bad, but when those things were mean they were _mean_. She'd had a few bad run ins with Dustin's old cat, Mews, may she rest in peace.

"He's so hot, right?" Max said, cause Ross to hum in agreement.

"So hot."

"Hotter than Steve?" she asked, wearing a teasing smile and raising her eyebrows.

Ross's mouth dropped opened for a second before she pursed her lips and looked away haughtily. "Never!"

They both dissolved into laughter and Max sighed, picking up one of the other magazines.

"I bet he's an amazing kisser," she said offhandedly.

"Me, too," Ross said dreamily, clutching the magazine to her chest while staring at the wall. Max and El could practically _hear_ what she was thinking.

She knew it was just a silly crush, but Ross would keel over and die if Steve ever asked her out. Then she'd come back to life because of course she wasn't going to turn that down! There was a short bit after him and Nancy broke up where she wasn't sure whether to be happy or angry about it. One one hand, they broke up which meant that Ross had a chance (no matter how slim and minuscule they were); but on the other, Nancy not only broke Steve's heart, but she also walked away from something good.

What Ross wouldn't do to be four years older and on Steve Harrington's arm.

Her friends teased her for it a lot, especially Max and Richie. They thought it was absolutely hilarious, especially since she virtually had no chance. The fact that Ross knew it, too, only made it funnier to them. They often called him her "celebrity crush" because it was never going to happen.

At first she was embarrassed and sad about it, but eventually even she began to find it funny how often she talked about his hair or cheekbones whenever he was mentioned. Now she embraced it, because it was fun pining after him with the complete knowledge and understanding that there was no way they would end up together. She had nothing to lose.

"I'm talking about Ralph!" Max said, swatting at Ross's arm playfully, who snorted.

They looked over to El, who was raising her eyebrows high at them, and Max grinned.

"Hey," She said, sitting down next to Ross. "Is Mike a good kisser?"

El smiled shyly and rolled her eyes at the questions, avoiding the other girls' gaze. "I don't know," she mumbled, eyes dancing around the room. "He's my first boyfriend."

Ross would sure hope that Mike was her first boyfriend. The sudden thought of El possibly having one before Mike, before they'd all met, was equally terrifying and interesting. She wasn't sure how nice have a relationship in Hawkins Lab would be.

Max bobbed her head at El's response, tilting her head and shrugging her shoulders. "Ex-boyfriend," she corrected.

El sighed, because yeah she'd just broken up with Mike. Ross didn't think anyone had seen it coming. Like literally anyone. If she had to guess, Ross would've suspected the the two would break apart later on in a few years, when raging hormones and spiteful jealousy would get between them one way or another.

She just didn't really see them realistically dating to marry. Not at this age. She didn't see anyone, doing that. Not even Max and Lucas, no offense to them.

"Hey, don't worry about it, okay?" Max asked, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Okay? He'll come crawling back to you in no time, begging for forgiveness."

"She's right," Ross nodded, pointing at El but not quite looking up from the magazine.

If Ross knew Mike at all (and she'd like to think she knew him pretty well), it was that as stubborn as he could be about things, there was always a soft spot when it came to El. Hell, he'd spent the entire first few days they'd met hiding her away in his basement simply because she didn't want to talk to adults.

Ever since she'd been released into the real world, Mike had been by her side no matter the limitations placed on her. Too the point where he hung out more with her than he did with the kids he'd known his whole life.

Mike was most definitely going to be the one waving the truce flag in this battle, and most likely sooner than later. If there was any reason he _didn't_ do it sooner, it was likely because one of the boys had convinced him otherwise.

"See!" Max exclaimed, pointing at El with a triumphant smirk. "I guarantee you him and Lucas like, totally wallowing in self-pity and misery right now. They're probably like _oh, I hope they take us back!_"

Her high pitched and whiny impression of them drew out a laugh out of the three girls. Max grinned.

"God, what I wouldn't give to see their stupid faces." She rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to the magazine. She'd clearly been waiting for some sort of response, because after a moment when neither Ross nor El said anything, she glanced up between them.

Ross was still focused on the magazine quiz, eyebrows furrowed as she thumbed the corners of the pages. El's face was blank as she stared off to the side, and Max could practically see the cogs turning.

"What is it?"

El glanced up at her, waiting a moment or two. "I have an idea."

Max was just about to humor the brunette and ask what this idea was when Ross suddenly chucked the magazine she'd been holding across the room.

"Damn things says I'm going to live on the countryside!" She said, crunching up her eyebrows menacingly. "Me! On the countryside? As if!"

She crossed her arms in defiance and met El and Max's stares, expression and arms dropping.

"What is it?"

.

A few minutes later, after El had shared her genuine plan, they had the radio switched onto an empty station. El was blindfolded, sitting with her back to the dresser that the radio sat on, while Max and Ross watched on, eager to get the show on the road.

"Is this really going to work?" Max asked excitedly, to which El nodded. "Holy shit, this is insane!" She nudged Ross in the side with a grin before El sternly called her name.

"Yeah, quiet," She sobered up immediately. "I'm sorry."

Ross tapped the girl's thigh and gave her a quick, toothy smile before they focused back in on El.

She took a deep breath, and spoke up a moment later.

"I see them," she said. Max moved from the bed to the space on the floor next to El, and Ross leaned forward off the edge of the bed.

"What are they doing?" Max asked quietly, afraid to disrupt whatever connection or view the telekinetic had going on.

"Eating."

"That's all?" The disappointment was clear in Max's voice. Clearly she'd been expecting something more exciting.

There was silence for a moment, and Ross spied the small drop of blood making its way out of El's nose.

"They say we are _species_," El said, the word coming out of her mouth stiffly. She must've not known what they meant by that.

"What?" Max asked, eyebrows raised.

But Max and Ross were able to figure it out in seconds.

"Emotion, not logic," El spoke again.

"_What_?" Max seethed.

Ross could practically hear, probably Lucas, stating that girls were like a whole different species. He was probably saying it to Mike. He prided himself on his instincts and sense of logic, so it made sense if the words came from his mouth.

There was more silence as El listened and Max and Ross waited for her to say more, but after a moment she just ripped off the blindfold with wide eyes, glancing between the two.

"What?" Max asked. "What happened?"

El burst into a fit of giggles suddenly, and fell to her side. The other two girls exchanged confused smiles.

"Wait, what happened?" Max laughed, nudging her. El only reached up and pulled Max down next to her, who grabbed onto Ross and yanked her straight off the bed on top of them both.

This only made them all begin to laugh harder, in a heap on the floor until they were close to tears for whatever reason. They didn't stop laughing until they heard the sound of a vehicle squealing to a stop outside.

"Hopper," Ross said, sitting up and looking towards the door. El jumped to her feet, saying something about no spying, and they all rushed around to clean up any evidence.

El wiped her nose clean with the black blindfold before shoving it quickly beneath her bed where he can't see.

Max pushed the radio back into place and turned it to an actual music station, cranking the volume loudly right after they hear Hopper shout, "Hey!" from the living room.

They can't hear his next words, but the sound of his pounding footsteps growing closer sends them into a frenzy as Ross grabs the stack of magazines off the bed, dropping them down into the floor. They dive down, scooping up the first issue they can grab and flipping it open to some random page, just as the door bust open.

Hopper stood in the doorway, looking absolutely livid for some reason or another, and also a tad bit on the drunk side, considering how he wobbled in place.

"Do you knock? Geez!" Max exclaimed from the floor. Ross tensed, thinking back to all of the fights her and her dad had gotten into when he was drunk and angry. Did El go through the same thing here with Hopper?

"Yeah!" El tacked on after Max. "Geez!"

Hopper looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Ooooh, hey," he said, looking as if he'd just walked into a mine field. "I'm sorry. I thought that, uh—"

"Mike's not here," Max said.

Was that why he was mad? It would make a lot more sense. Ross would rather believe that than think that he just got drunkenly angry from time to time and would yell at Eleven to blow off steam. Perhaps he just thought, like the rest of them, that El and Mike spent too much time together.

Slowly, she relaxed. Yeah that had to be it. But she might ask El, just in case...

"Max wanted to have," El started, pausing for a bit as she struggled to pull out the word.

"A sleepover," Ross finished. The other girls' nodded.

"Is that...okay?"

"Yeah," Hopper said, pausing for a moment before he repeated in more enthusiastically, bobbing his shoulders up and down as he nodded. "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Your parents know about it?"

"Yup," Max said.

Hopper turned to Ross.

"My dad is out of town, but Mrs. Wheeler knows," she told him.

"Uh, yeah, it's cool," Hopper slurred, swaying where he stood. He nodded at them blankly. "Yeah. That's—that's really cool."

He stood there awkwardly, just looking at them, and they all shifted in their spot.

"Did you need something?" Max asked after a second.

"Oh!" Hopper jumped. He shook his head. "No. No. Uh, I'll leave." He grabbed the handle and began to pull the door.

"I'll just let you...I'll leave you."

When it shut, they stared at it for a moment before Max and El started to giggle furiously.

Ross just watched the door, eyebrows furrowed before she turned to El.

"Does he do that a lot?" She asked.

The brunette stopped giggling, looking from the door and back to her before asking, "Do what?"

Ross averted her gaze, shrugging her shoulders as she looked down at the magazine.

The more she thought about it, the more she just figured that Hopper was initially angry because he thought it was Mike that was with Eleven. But she had to be sure.

"Just barge in your room, drunk," she said, looking back towards the door. "Yelling. Do you guys fight?"

El shook her head. "No. We fight, but not a lot."

That was okay, then. Most parents and their kids fought from time to time about one thing or another.

"Why?" El asked curiously.

Ross felt her face get hot. Shit, it must have seemed weird that she asked that at all. She was just worried for El.

After a moment, when Ross didn't say anything, Max spoke up.

"You know how me and Billy don't really get along?" She asked, grabbing El's attention. "How we fight a lot?"

"Yeah," El said.

While Max and Billy didn't have a lot more altercations since the whole bat-to-balls threat in the fall, they still had some small spats here and there. Enough that Max still complained about him from time to time.

"Well, it's like that," Max said. "Ross and her...well, she just—"

"Me and my dad fight a lot," Ross took over. "It used to be a lot worse, but it's gotten better. I was just wondering."

Max sent Ross a concerned glance and she just waved her off. El stared at her with big eyes.

"It's really no big deal," she told them, smiling. "Don't worry about it."

"Okay," El said, not sounding particularly convinced. Max picked up on Ross's hesitance over the topic and was quick to change the subject.

She peered up at the radio with a sly grin. "I wonder who else we could spy on."

.

"I can't believe we're doing this," Max said giddily, jotting her brother's name down on a piece of yellow scratch paper. She turned it around and pushed it into the circle of other names.

Ross wasn't quite sure why they chose names like Mrs. Wheeler or Nancy, but she was even more unsure on why Mr. Wheeler was there. Steve, Dustin, Billy, and even Mr. Clarke she could understand, but Ted Wheeler?

Max tossed the marker to the side and looked at them. "Ready?"

"Ready," El and Ross repeated.

El went first, spinning the empty glass bottle that sat in the center of the circle with a flick of her wrist. Ross winced when it stopped.

"Mr. Wheeler," they all said with disappointment, exchanging glances.

"Ugh, boring," Max said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, boring," El started to laugh.

"Boring?" Ross asked, looking at them like they were crazy. She fake gagged, pointing a finger at her mouth. "Try disgusting."

She fake puked a second time, trying to hide her grin as the other two girls started laughing.

"Old."

She gagged again.

"Deadbeat."

Again.

"Never lets you say bad words, ever—"

"We get it," Max laughed, pushing at her arm to get her to stop. "Spin again, El."

The brunette reached forwards, but let her hand hover over the bottle as she peered up at them. "Against the rules?"

"What rules?" Ross furrowed her eyebrows, wondering when they had established any sort of guidelines for this little game of theirs.

"We make them ourselves," Max said smartly, preening at the smile El gave her.

Ross smiled inwardly. Her and Eleven were becoming even better friends that she'd thought. A few days ago she would have never guessed they'd be having sleepovers together and spying on people, and yet here they were.

In a way, they had Mike to thank for lying so terribly about things. If he hadn't done that, El would have never came to them.

She spun the bottle again, and they watched as it landed on Billy. Ross raised her eyebrows, and her and El turned to Max at the same time.

"Okay, look," Max started, getting off the bed to fetch the radio. "I should just warn you, if he's with some girl or doing something gross—just get out of there right away before you're scarred for life."

She sat the radio on the bed and handed El the blindfold.

"Oh my god, I didn't even think about that," Ross said, throwing a hand to her mouth with wide eyes. "What if he's having—"

"Ross," El said.

"Exactly!" Max agreed. "He could be doing anything, and—"

"Max."

"No, I'm just saying, I'm serious! He's really gross!"

"Max!"

"Okay," Max said, smiling sheepishly as El's exasperated tone. "Shutting up now." She tuned the radio until they found an empty channel, and El wrapped the blindfold around her head, tying it off in the back.

Max and Ross watched, exchanging nervous and suggestive looks at what El might see. Considering all of the sex jokes that completely flew over the brunette's head whenever Richie spouted them out, she really would be scarred for life if she saw something like that.

Part of Ross wished Richie were with them. It would have been annoying, for sure, but the jokes he would've been able to come up with would have been hilarious, no matter how disgusting. There was no doubt about that.

"I found him."

Something about the way she said it was off. Right away, the tone of her voice was like a red alarm blaring in Ross's head. Looking at Max, she could tell that the fellow redhead felt it too. Something was wrong. The game suddenly wasn't fun like it was supposed to be.

"What's he doing?" Max asked.

"I don't know," El said, shaking her head lightly. "He's...on the floor...talking to someone." Her breathing started to pick up, becoming heavier with every inhale.

There was another few heavy seconds of silence, Max and Ross too scared to ask anything and El too caught up in whatever she was seeing to relay it back to them.

Then, with a huge gasp, Eleven tore off the blindfold. Ross leaned forward and grabbed her arm, to remind her that she wasn't alone.

"What is it?" Max asked. "What happened?"

There were tears brimming in her dark brown eyes, and she was breathing like she'd just finished running a mile.

Her next words had them all at a loss.

"He saw me."

.

Richie woke up to someone kneeing him in the soft spot. Not one of the best ways to start one's morning, he would admit, and hearing awful music blaring in the background didn't help much. It sounded like some medieval folk music, the kind with bag pipes and bad taste. Nothing at all like the music he liked to listen to.

But the music was put on the back burner momentarily as he focused on the pain, immediately curling in on himself and rolling over. He fell straight off the couch and landed on the carpet between it and coffee table.

"What the fuck," he groaned out, hissing in between his teeth as he tried to look up at the obvious culprit. "Wheeler!"

Him and the lookalike had shared the couch (which was nearly too small to fit both of their lanky bodies) because both of them were too stubborn to move the night before. Richie suddenly regretted that decision. A lot.

Mike wasn't paying attention to him and his crisis, though, as he was already asking Will to turn down the terrible music.

"Please address me by my full name," Will said from the other end of the coffee table. His full name? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Like first, middle, and last name? Now that Richie thought about it, what even _was_ the kid's middle name?

"You're fucking what?" Richie asked in a strained voice. He began to pull himself off the floor, using the table to pull him into a sitting position while using his other to shield his balls. He wasn't going to risk anything happening.

He heard something slam onto the ground, followed by Will practically shouting, "My full name!"

Richie looked directly ahead, where Will's voice was coming from, but all he could see was a blurry figure of purple. He hated being so blind.

"Oh my god," Mike said as Richie reached for his glasses. "Okay, _Will the Wise_. Can you please turn down the music?"

He slipped on his glasses and turned to see why Will dared to disrupt his beauty sleep. Not that he needed, Richie knew he was hot as balls as it was, but sleep was still a nice thing to have. The Byers boy apparently thought otherwise.

"That is not music," Will said dramatically. He was wearing some sort of purple wizard outfit (Richie was getting second hand embarrassment from just seeing the guy in it) and a staff that he wasn't sure he ever saw Will carry in with him.

"That...is the sound of destiny!" He banged his staff on the floor again, to emphasis his point.

The only destiny Richie saw himself in at the moment was going back to fucking bed. He didn't even know how to play Dungeons & Dragons, and didn't plan on learning any time soon. If Will had it his way, Richie would just be sitting at the corner of their table watching the game play out.

He turned around to see Mike and Lucas. They both looked confused, irritated, and sleepy. Understandable.

"I have seen into the future, and I've seen that today is a new day!" Will declared triumphantly. "A day...free of girls!"

Richie groaned loudly, flopping backwards onto the carpet. He said, "But I like girls!" He reached up and started pulled the blanket him and Mike had shared down with him, fully intending to go back to sleep where he lay.

"What is happening right now?" Lucas asked, his grogginess still leaving him a bit slow.

"Will, come on," Mike whined. His tone sounded like his mom had just taken his favorite toy (or Hopper had just taken his girlfriend, hah) but it had no affect on Will.

"A tribe of villagers are under threat from an evil force from the swamps of Kuzatan!"

"Will, it's so early!"

"Is it?" Will raved. "Is it early Michael?"

"Yes, it is!" Richie complained sharply. "Turn off the fucking music, throw that hat away, and go back to bed!"

"Tell that to the villagers crying for your help, Richard. The children are so frightened they cannot sleep." He pulled the blanket off of Richie, as if to tell him that if those children couldn't sleep, neither could he. Richie sat up, glaring.

"Are you truly going to let them parish? Or are you going to come to their rescue and become the heroes you were always meant to be?"

He was about to tell Will that, yes, he would let those little gremlins die if it meant he could go back to bed, but Lucas spoke first.

"Uh, can I at least take a shower first?" He said.

Well. So much for that.

.

"It's gonna start pouring soon," Max said, drawing her gaze upwards. Dark clouds were rolling in above them. "We should be at the mall, or like, watching a movie or something."

"How about watching a movie _at_ the mall," Ross said, also looking to the sky.

She could already feel the chill of the oncoming rain seeping into her skin. She nearly regretted wearing shorts, but the long sleeve she had on made up for it. She hoped they wouldn't be caught in the storm that was sure to come.

They were on a mission, one that Max wasn't completely on board with. After the fright El had the night before from the unexpected eye contact she had with Billy (any eye contact with the guy was creepy, so Ross couldn't blame her for freaking) the girl had asked if they could check out Billy's room the next day. Just to be sure.

"You don't believe me?" El asked.

"I believe you saw some super weird stuff," Max said, "totally, but you said Mike had sensed you in there before, right?"

El nodded.

"So maybe it was just like that," Max said, trying to draw out her step-brothers innocence. "Maybe Billy just...sensed you somehow."

"But the screams," El countered, sounding uneasy.

"Yeah, I know, but here's the thing," Max said slowly, like she wasn't quite sure how to proceed. Then she said, "When Billy is alone with a girl, the make, like—really crazy noises."

"Oh god," Ross muttered. If only Richie were here. He'd be having a blast cracking all of his jokes.

"They scream?" El asked with concern.

"Yeah, but, like...happy screams."

"Happy screams?" Ross asked incredulously, unable to hide her smirk.

"Happy screams?" El said. "What is happy screams?"

"It's like," Max sighed, face turning red from trying to explain something so vulgar to someone to innocent. "I'm...I'm just gonna lend you my mom's cosmo. That'll explain everything."

Ross laughed, and they pulled to a stop in front of Max's house at last.

"His car isn't here," Max said, surveying her home with pursed lips. She turned to look at El. "You really want to do this?"

El nodded.

"Ross?" Max turned to her.

"I know you've nearly been with us for year now, Max," she said, sea green eyes troubled. "But...trouble clearly seems to find us easily, all of us. And as much as I hope that El is wrong...I'd rather find it before it finds us."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own the ideas, characters, or plot of Stranger Things and It.**

* * *

**A/N: Here's the next chapter! Thank you to everyone who reviewed! i loved a lot of your suggests, and to kinda answer a question, I will say that I've been debating doing a small story kind of like an AU. it would be like a 'what if' thing, if Ross had moved to Derry instead of Richie to Hawkins. not sure about it yet, but we'll see! that being said, I hope you enjoy this chapter! it might be written a little differently than my other chapters, I'm trying out new things. have fun! **

**-blockthewriter**

* * *

They entered Billy's room silently and cautiously. Ross had her guard up, nearly expecting the guy to pop out from under the bed and break her arms for simply even looking at his bedroom door. But he wasn't there at the moment, and his radio was still playing heavy rock music despite the empty room.

There were beer cans everywhere and posters of bands and girls in swimsuits on the walls. Even though it wasn't very clean at all, it was still surprisingly neater than she expected from someone like Billy Hargrove. She'd imagined piles of clothes and trash, shit thrown everywhere and an overwhelming smell of cigarettes and beer. In reality, the room didn't even smell all too bad.

"Why do I get the feeling we're gonna find all kinds of wrong in here?" Max asked aloud. Ross figured the question wasn't meant to be answered, but she did anyway. Ish.

"Oh, don't say that. You're gonna jinx us."

El didn't say anything, too focused on the task at hand to provide any words.

They stepped further into the room, still treading lightly. They were in forbidden territory.

Max opened up the top drawer of his nightstand. Inside were a bunch magazines showing pictures of half naked women. Ross reached up to cover El's eyes as Max slid the drawer shut as if the inside were poison.

"Ugh!" She exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "Gag me with a spoon."

They spread out, checking his dresser, closet, and Ross even took a moment to peak under his mattress. She screwed up her face at the sight of even more magazines and covered them back up.

El spoke to them from inside the personal bathroom. "Guys?"

The two redheads glanced to each other and followed in after her. She was looking in the bathtub, but it was only filled with water and empty ice bags floating on the surface. Ross wondered what was so daunting about that.

Max reached down to grab one.

"Ice," She said to El. "It's just ice."

"An ice bath?" Ross guessed. Max nodded.

"Probably for his muscles or something. He works out like a maniac."

Despite their words, El wasn't doing too hot. She took a few trembling breaths and turned around. They followed her gaze to the cabinet below the sink, which had some blood smeared on it.

Ross wasn't sure what to think about that.

El bent over and opened the cabinet, pulling out the green trash can that was tucked inside. Ross took a moment, even though it definitely wasn't the time or place, to think about how nice of a green that was.

"El, what is it?" Max asked. She seemed concerned over how the brunette was just simply staring into the trash, which was understandable.

What could be in there, some more beer cans? What manly, disposable items had El so shaky?

"She's really freaked out," Ross whispered to Max, who nodded. They watched as El reached her hand in (Ross cringed, she would die before she went digging in Billy's trash) and pulled out a red fanny pack. It was the kind the life guards at the pool wore, with things like bandaids stashed inside.

Why would Billy throw that away?

Then, El pulled out a whistle on a string, also a life guard's. It's yellow color contrasted sharply with the blood smeared across it.

That couldn't be good.

.

"Do you guys hear that?" Will asked. "Sounds like...thunder. But, no! Wait. That's not thunder."

He paused, trying to sound scary and dramatic. And yes, Richie was just shaking with fear. Wow.

"It's...a horde of juju zombies!"

Richie looked over as Will slammed a bunch of little game characters on the board the vigor, rattling the table. It seemed that the poor guy was the only one really invested in the game.

The other two, Mike and Lucas, kind of looked like they wanted to kill them selves, if he was being honest. Richie didn't envy them. The only reason he wasn't sitting over there next to them was because he didn't know how to play, and had whined enough that they relinquished him from having to just watch.

It was hard to think that, aside from Will, any of them had ever really been excited to play D&D. Ross had always told him that, before him and Max came to town, it was one of their favorite things to do. Even for her. He couldn't remember a time since he'd lived in Hawkins that he saw her ever sit down at the little table with the boys, or that he saw the boys not grumble about having to play.

Richie had joked to Ross that him and Max were just so hot that they just couldn't focus correctly on their little game. She'd surprisingly agreed, more so on the fact that Max probably was the reason for Lucas's waning interest, as was El for Mike. Dustin was probably just distracted because the other two were distracted. She never said anything about thinking he was hot, but he liked to think she did anyway.

Bottom line: Dungeons & Dragons wasn't their bread and butter anymore, and it showed.

"Sir Mike," Will said, "your action?"

The Wheeler boy turned to Lucas, asking in a flat tone, "What should I do?"

Lucas shrugged noncommittally and said, "Attack?"

"Okay, I attack with my flail." He rolled the dice across the table, and Will leaned closer to watch.

"Whoosh!" He exclaimed when they settled. "You miss! Your flail clanks the stone, and the zombie horde lumbers towards you. And..."

He rolled his own dice behind the little divider he had set up, so the other two wouldn't take a peek at what he had planned or whatever. Richie didn't think they would try to look, anyway.

Will leaned towards Mike and said seriously, "The juju bites your arm! Flesh tears! Aagh! Seven points of damage."

"Oh no, my arm," Mike said sarcastically. His grin told just how much of a joke this all was, and Richie was reminded of how freakishly similar they looked. He probably made that face himself, all the time.

Mike grabbed his arm and turned to Lucas. "Look, Lucas, my arm."

The two snickered and Will's face fell.

Richie sort of felt bad for him, but Will only let it phase him for a second. He said, "Sir Lucas, the zombie horde roars! Do you fight back or do you run?"

Lucas looked like he was trying not to laugh as he went to answer, but the phone rang before he could open his mouth.

They all turn towards it, and Will jumped out of his chair so fast he knocked his nearly knocked his wizard hat off.

"No!" He shouted, slamming his staff on the floor. "It's a distraction! A trap. Do _not_answer it."

For a second, it actually looked like Mike and Lucas were going to listen. But then, with after a exchanging glances, they leapt out of their seats at the same time. The booked it to the ringing phone.

"What? No!"

Mike reached it first, snatching it off the receiver. He said, "El?"

Richie could smell the desperation, and it wasn't pleasant.

A second later Mike made an annoyed face, so clearly it wasn't the girls on the other end of the line. What a shame. Richie would have liked to talk to Ross. She could save him from the damned basement. He was getting bored and there were only so many comics Mike had to read.

"No," Mike said into the receiver. "Sorry, not interested."

He hung the phone back up on it's mount and turned around, sagging against the pillar. He looked like a kicked puppy. He explained, "Telemarketers."

"Maybe we should just call them," Lucas suggested.

Fina-fucking-ly. Richie was all for watching them flounder around trying to please the girls, but they were being so dense about it that it was getting irritating.

"We can do that?"

"I think so?"

"Yeah, But what would we say?"

Richie decided to help them out. He said in a loud voice, "You apologize for lying and not doing it well." When they looked over at him, he kept his eyes on the comic book, pretending like he hadn't said a word.

"No!" Will said. "We'll say nothing! The Khuisar tribe still needs your help." He gestured to the table.

"Alright then," Mike said with a shrug. "I'll use my torch to set fire to the chambers, sacrificing ourselves, killing the jujus and saving the Khuisar. We all live on as heroes in the memories of the Kalamar." He raised his hands and shook them in mock celebration, a rather flat expression on his face.

"Victory," Lucas added lamely. The two of them high fived.

Will stared at them for a second, frustration and anger building on his face until he turned around. "Okay." He threw his staff at the table, knocking over the figurines he had set up.

"Fine," He said sharply, ripping off his hat. He turned off the music next. "You guys win. Congratulations."

"Will, I was just messing around," Mike said quickly.

Richie sat up, alarms going off in his head. Will angrily shrugged off his purple robe and threw it on the ground. Mike immediately tried to pick of the pieces, stepping around Lucas to get to his chair.

"Let's finish for real," he said. "How much longer is the campaign?"

"Just forget it, Mike!" Will snapped.

"No!" Mike turned in his seat to glance at Lucas and Richie. He expression screamed _help me, now!_"No, you want to keep playing, right?"

"Y-Yeah!" Lucas said, trying to sound enthusiastic. "Totally."

"I kinda want to watch now," Richie added. Maybe that would calm him down? "If that's cool."

"We'll just call the girls afterwards," Mike said.

"I said forget it, Mike! Okay?" Will spun towards them. They all blinked at his raised voice. Richie was especially caught off guard. He wasn't sure he'd ever heard the kid yell before.

Will looked down, gathering his things up in his arms. "I'm going home."

Lucas stepped in front of his path, trying to grab his arms. "But—come on, Will."

"Move!" Will pushed his friend out of the way and started up the stairs, his quick footsteps heavy with anger. Mike raced after him.

The two boys remaining stared at the steps for a few seconds, before Lucas sighed loudly. He dropped down onto his chair and rubbed at his face.

"We messed up."

Richie didn't warrant him with a reply, only nodded, because yeah.

They'd definitely messed up.

.

The girls' next destination was the pool. People were currently ditching the place due to the onslaught of rain that had broke through the sky. It was pouring down in sheets by the time they'd left Max's house. They pulled on their raincoats and rode their bikes (El was on the back of Ross's) despite the rain, because they had more pressing things to worry about than getting a little wet.

_Or a lot wet_. Ross cringed at the feeling of water running down her face, even with her hood being pulled up. She normally didn't mind rain, but it was so hot out regardless that it made more an uncomfortable combination. She was sweaty and damp, and felt like she was wearing a second skin. Her curls crowded against her face, and she decided to put it up once she was able.

Going against the flow of the crowd, towards the pool instead of away, they got some odd looks. Everyone was leaving because a lightning strike had forced them out, so it was pointless to be going in.

As soon as they were out of the rain they set their bikes aside and approached the counter. Two lifeguards were sitting behind it, looking like the typical teenage employees, bored and uninterested. One of them, a boy with brown hair, glanced up at them for a second before turning his eyes back down to whatever he was reading. The other one, a girl, was sitting on some side table, stared at them as they walked up, but made no move to talk. She was too busy sucking up some soda through a straw.

Ross stared right back, throwing her hair up into a ponytail with her scrunchie.

"Excuse me," Max said.

Immediately the male life guard, without even looking up at them, said, "No one in the water until 30 minutes after the last strike. Don't try and argue with me."

Ross furrowed her eyebrows, moving her challenging glare from the girl to the boy.

"You wanna get electrocuted," he continued, "go climb a tree."

She screwed up her face when he said that. Annoyance began to seep in at his blatant assumption about why they were there.

"That's not why we're here," She said.

"Yeah we don't care," Max agreed. "We're not here to swim. Or get electrocuted."

El pulled out the fanny pack from her raincoat pocket, holding it up for the two older kids to see. "We found this."

The guy looked up, taking them in and looking at the pack she held with disinterested.

"Does that belong to anybody here?" Max asked.

Loudly, the girl life guard sipped from her straw.

"Oh, yeah. That's Heather's," the guy said. "I'll get it back to her."

"We could give it back to her," El said quickly.

Ross furrowed her eyebrows. "We can?" she asked quietly. El elbowed her in the ribs and she shut up.

"You could," the guy said. His glare was patronizing and it ticked Ross off. "'Cept, she's not here. Bailed on me today."

The three of them exchanged quick looks, that didn't go unnoticed by the two older teenagers.

"What is this?" The guy asked dryly. "You girls want a reward or something?"

The only thing Ross wanted was for him to stop with the condescending tone.

"Nope," Max said, surprisingly cheerful. She shook her head and gave them a cheeky smile. "We're just...good samaritan's."

The boy life guard rolled his eyes and diverted his attention away from them, while the girl life guard just gave them an odd look.

El moved away from the counter, distracted by something behind them. Ross nudged Max to break the staring contest she was having with the girl life guard, and they followed El.

She moved to stand in front of a bulletin board marked with big letters and pictures. The photos were of the life guarding staff that year, including the two teens they'd just talked to, Billy, and Heather.

The only really they knew it was her was because her name was marked underneath the picture in bold sharpie. She had long brown hair and was smiling prettily at the camera.

"Do you think you can find her?" Max asked.

The two life guards at the counter laughed loudly about something. They were too distracted to notice El rip Heather's picture from the board.

They retreated to the ground women's locker room, and after a quick debate over whether there was enough time to go home, they settled for using the showers as makeshift radio static.

El looked around for anything she could use for a blindfold, while Ross and Max turned on every shower in the room.

Ross really hated pool shower rooms. She hated pools in general. The smell of chlorine made her sick, and without being able to do things like splash others and play chicken, the only other option was to swim laps. Very lame, in her opinion. But the showers were even worse. Every inch of the place was wet. The curtain for each stall, the benches outside of them, and the cement floor. There were nasty puddles everywhere. It was humid inside because of the outside heat and the water, but the showers were always icy cold and had terrible water pressure. They were just disgusting.

El had managed to find goggles and duct tape (how, Ross had no idea) and taped the goggles over to block out any light. She sat on the floor (the wet floor, ew) between two benches, with Heather's picture in front of her. Max and Ross sat on the benches on either side of her.

They watched as she settled in, waiting for her to reach the Void or wherever it was she went when they did this thing. They were on edge from the information that Heather hadn't shown up for work after they found her fanny pack and bloody whistle in Billy's bathroom. They waited in silence for around two minutes as El sat, facing straight head.

The anticipation was killing Ross.

"Are you finding anything?" She asked after a few moments. El nodded, but she didn't say anything.

"What do you see?" Max asked.

"A door," El said. "A red door."

Ross wondered what could be so important about a red door, and if she'd ever even seen one before. She asked, "What's behind it?"

"A...bathtub."

It sounded like Eleven had just found a bathroom. Max and Ross gave each other confused glances, and El suddenly flinched.

Within second, her breathing got really heavy and her chest was heaving uncontrollably. Ross thought of all the scary things one would find in the bathroom. She was only coming up with nasty scenarios.

"El?" Ross knelt down next to her on the floor. She raised her hands, but didn't touch El. She didn't know what would happen if she grabbed her suddenly, and didn't want to break whatever connection El had going.

"What's wrong with her?" Max asked.

"No!" El cried out, flinching again.

"She's got to be seeing something bad!" Ross said. After a few more seconds of panic, Ross said fuck it and three all caution to the wind.

She practically ripped the goggles off of Eleven's head, disrupting whatever she'd been seeing. Her eyes snapped open and she snatched Ross's wrist. She looked around wildly, like she had to make sure she was still at the pool.

"What happened?" Max put her hand on El's shoulder and shook her. "El!"

She just continued to pant, not answering to either of them as she buried her head in her hands. Whatever she'd seen must have been alarming to have her this freaked. Neither of the red heads were quite sure what to do.

It took a few minutes, but eventually El managed to calm down, no longer breathing like she'd just competed in a race. It seemed that once she was able to get oxygen to her head properly, some sort of switch was flipped.

She look up at them with determination.

"We need to find her."

"Find Heather?" Ross said.

"Like _actually_find her?" Max asked. She looked at El with frustration. "What the hell just happened?"

The stood up, and Ross dropped the goggles onto the floor.

"She needs help," was all El said.

Ross was getting frustrated. Why was El not just telling them straight out? They didn't have time to be mysterious and dramatic.

"Help with what, though?" she asked.

"What happened?" Max repeated for the millionth time. "What did you see?"

"We don't even know where she's actually at!" Ross said. This was crazy. "How are we—"

El spun around, already in the doorway. She looked them both dead in the eye.

"I can find it," she said. She sounded like she was going to do this with nothing but sheer determination, but when Ross thought about it she figured that wasn't too far off.

"You have to trust me."

.

To hell with arcade games. Richie was going to use that old jar of quarters he'd been saving for Street Fighter to buy a raincoat instead.

Both Mike and Lucas had one, which was fantastic for them. The weather was insanely bad. It was raining buckets, so hard that it might as well been actual buckets hitting them rather than raindrops. Because Richie didn't own a rain jacket, he was left to wear one of Mike's dad's old jackets.

It was huge on him. Compared to everyone else, Richie was tall. Him and Mike were roughly the same height (even though Richie would swear up and down that he was taller), and they were both all just arms and legs. That being said, the jacket still fell down to his mid thighs. It covered his clothes (he wore shorts. He regretted it), but it definitely didn't stop him from being soaked to the bone. It almost seemed like it absorbed the water instead of repelling it. He honestly might have been better off without it.

Earlier, when Mike had come back downstairs without Will, he explained that the two had fought. Will had ran out into the rain and Mike wanted to go to his house to find him.

If Richie was being honest (when was he not?) he really wanted to do anything _but _that. The storm outside was just getting worse and confronting Will at his house just seemed awkward. He knew the kid would get over it on his own. Hopefully, anyway.

But he also felt really guilty for thinking that. What kind of friend would rather read comic books than go out and make sure another friend was okay? An asshole friend, a.k.a. Richie.

Besides, his lookalike was way too nervous and jittery about the whole situation. If they hadn't ended up going, Mike's nerves would have driven Richie mad.

Whatever their fight had been about (because it was _clearly_more than D&D) must have been bad. So Richie and Lucas (who was also feeling like a total asshole) complied, and followed Mike out into the downpour.

That's how Richie found himself on Will's porch. He was colder than he ever thought possible. He couldn't stop himself from shivering and his hair was plastered to his forehead, dripping water into his face. Mike was pounding on the front door.

"Will!" He yelled. "Will, I'm sorry, man, alright? I was being a total asshole!"

Richie thought of what else they could have fought. Will just mainly seemed irritated about the fact that they'd totally brushed him off whenever he asked them to play. Mike and Lucas's focus had been on the girls, and Will didn't take well to the distraction.

Was Will jealous? Mike had El (well, not anymore). Lucas had Max. And even though they weren't dating like the other pairs, Richie had Ross. Was he upset because he was the odd guy out?

No, that didn't make sense. Will wouldn't get upset over something petty like that. Only if he liked one of the girls. But he also didn't show any interest in any of them, not in _that _way. If anything, he showed more interest in—

Oh.

Richie wiped water from his glasses and squinted at Mike, who was still yelling through the door. "Please, Will! I'm sorry!"

He decided to not think too hard about it. It wasn't his business. It wasn't his place. He didn't _want _it to be his business or place. It just made him think of Derry, and he didn't like that.

"Please, can you just come outside and we'll talk?" Mike asked.

"Better yet, let us inside!" Richie shouted. "It's fucking cold out here!"

Mike elbowed him sharply in the side.

He knocked on the door again. "Will!"

Lucas moved over to the window. He tried to look inside and knocked lightly on the glass. He said, "Hey, Will! Come on, man! We're sorry!"

Richie joined him at the window. He pressed his forehead into the glass, trying to see between the blinds. "We're _really_sorry!"

He was _really _cold.

Mike took a step back from the door. He said, "I don't think he's inside, guys."

"Where else would he be?" Richie asked.

"He could be at his fort?" Lucas suggested. Now they were just grasping at straws.

Richie was sure that he was just inside, too mad to let them in. Even though that didn't sound like Will at all, it could make sense. People acted out when they were angry. The guy probably just wanted them to suffer from hypothermia or something. Will wasn't dumb enough to go to Castle Byers (which _wasn't_waterproof) in a storm like this.

"In the _rain?_" Richie asked skeptically.

"Look, we can just got check," Mike said, "and if we don't find him there we can come back and check here again."

All Richie heard was that he was going to have to walk through more rain. He scowled.

"Well, why not," he said sarcastically. He jumped off the porch and straight into a puddle. "If Will really _is _out there, I'm going to beat him up for being so stupid."

.

Ross could see the red door from the street. It was illuminated by the porch light, standing out vibrantly compared to everything else. The house they were in front of was big and nice, and apparently Heather's.

"Is this it?" Max asked. The pouring rain nearly drowned out her voice.

El, who was perched on the pegs attached to Max's wheels, nodded. "Yeah, it is."

El had ridden with Max this time around. It had grown dark quickly, and the rain didn't exactly make it any better. Because Max's bike had a light attached to the front, they decided she would take El. The light would help them see better in the dark, which meant less chance of crashing. That way, if Ross crashed because she couldn't see, it would _only _be her. Less casualties. She didn't mind.

Lightning flashed overhead, and they all jumped. Ross decided that whatever they were going to find wasn't good.

They ditched this bikes on the side of the road, and made their way to the front porch. The door swung upon on it's own accord (El's really), and she stepped inside.

"I feel like we should have at least knocked," Ross said. "But alright."

She followed in after El, and Max was right behind her. They dripped water onto the nice carpeted floors, and moved further into the hall.

A picture caught Max's eye, and she walked up to it. It was a family picture. She said, "This is her house." It sounded like she was surprised.

"What?" El asked.

"Heather's house."

"I would hope so," Ross said. It seemed Max had doubted El's ability to find it. "It would be awkward if we came all this way and got the wrong house."

Laughter floated in front another room. It sounded like a woman's light and flowy. That laugh didn't sound like someone in danger. Ross had expected screams.

What were they doing there? Had Eleven been wrong?

They walked into what must have been the dining room. There, at the table, was Billy. He was sitting with two adults who had to be Heather's parents, judging from the family picture. Heather's mother stopped laughing as soon as she caught sight of them. Both of the men looked over at them.

"Max," Billy said.

_Shit._

"We didn't meant to barge in," Max said quickly. "We tried to knock, but...maybe you didn't hear us over the storm." It didn't looked like any of them were convinced, so Ross stepped in.

"The thunder is really loud," she said. Billy continued to stare at them, chewing on food. "We were outside for a few minutes, and it was getting cold. I hope you don't mind that we let ourselves in."

It seemed Heather's father (who had a notably huge forehead) _did _mind. He sneered at them rudely. "I'm sorry, who is this dripping all over my living room right now?"

He didn't sound sorry at all, and Ross hoped they ruined his precious carpet.

Billy laughed suddenly, leaning back in his chair. "I'm sorry," he said. "Janet, Tom, _this _is my sister, Maxine."

Tom didn't look too impressed, but Janet turned to them with a smile. "Oh!" she said cheerfully, like she'd heard lots of great things about Max.

Billy got up from his seat and rounded the table to them.

Ross could see how his composure was mistaken for charm. He dripped with confidence and control. It covered up how creepy and sadistic he really was, but he didn't have her fooled.

"What on earth are you doing here?" He asked. The concern in his voice, fake, put them on edge. "Is something wrong?" He stepped in front of them, staring Max down.

"We just wanted to make sure everything was okay," she said.

"Okay?" Billy said. "Why wouldn't it be okay?"

"Where is she?" El asked suddenly.

Ross's heart leapt into her throat as he turned slowly to look at Eleven. If what she said was true, then Billy knew that El had been spying on him. He _saw _her.

"I'm sorry. Where is _who?_" he said slowly. Despite his words, it was obvious he knew. Painfully, scary obvious that he knew El had seen him.

Before she even had time to think of a response, someone else walked into the room from the far door.

"Well, they're a little burnt, I'm sorry—"

It was Heather. She looked just as she did in the picture, but her sunny smile melted off her face when she saw Billy and the girls.

"Heather!" Billy exclaimed. "This is my sister, Maxine, and her friend, _Roslyn._"

It was clear that he had never been fond of her. Hitting his nice car with a rock was Strike One, and trying to defend Lucas all but made her death sentence official. He'd never forgotten how she came at him with a piece of wood, and (as much as she hated to admitted) she _definitely _never forgot how he snapped that piece of wood like a twig. Whenever Ross would go over to Max's house, they always steered clear of Billy. He did the same to them, but she never missed the hateful glares she got when Max wasn't looking. The most concerning thing, though, was that he knew her full name. She'd never told him, and she was sure that Max hadn't, either.

"And, I'm sorry, but I did not quite catch your name," he told El. His tone was very polite, but his stare was calculating.

She met his gaze unwavering. "El."

Thunder rumbled outside.

"El," he repeated.

Oh god, it was so obvious he knew. He's definitely seen El. Ross got goosebumps from his stare, and he wasn't even looking at her. Fuck.

"Now, what is it you were saying, El? You were looking for somebody?"

The telekinetic looked over to Heather. She stuttered, "I saw—I—I saw you—"

"Your manager," Max interrupted. "We saw your manager at the pool. He, uh, he said you guys didn't come in to work today, so we got worried."

"Yeah, and we couldn't find Billy at the house," Ross added, trying to make it believable. "So we thought we'd look for you both here."

Heather stared at them. She didn't say anything, and she looked sort of dazed.

"Heather wasn't feeling so hot today," Billy said, "so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health."

He turned to her, said condescendingly, in a way the parents didn't notice, "But you're feeling just fine right now, aren't you, Heather?"

She snapped out of her funk and nodded. Her answer was fluid, like she'd never spaced off. "I'm feeling so much better."

Billy turned back to look at the three younger girls. His eyes looked smug and they glinted with someone else malicious.

"Do you girls want a cookie," Heather asked. "They're fresh out of the oven."

"No thanks," Ross said. "We should probably be going, actually, before the storm gets any worse." She started taking a few steps backwards, pulling Max and El to the door.

"Oh goodness," Janet stopped them. "You three don't need to go out there. We'd be more than happy to let you stay."

Tom didn't look very glad about it, but he didn't say anything to protest.

"No, it's alright," Max said. "We don't want to intrude. We'll be okay heading home."

"That's a good idea," Billy agreed. "Here, I'll walk you guys to the door."

He grabbed onto Max's and Ross's shoulders, steering them out of the room. He didn't take his eyes off of Eleven as they walked back to the door. It was still wide open from when they'd walked in.

El turned back to them and he let go of Max and Ross. The smile he gave them wasn't quite right. He said, "You guys get home safe now, ya hear?" The look in his eyes said something more like _Go get hit by lightning_.

"Right," Max said slowly. She nudged Ross and El out the door first, sending him one last long glance over her shoulder.

They hurried out to their bikes, hoods up, and El hopped on the back of Max's. Ross watched as Billy stared at them from the small windows next to the door. Her head began to pound.

"Let's go," Max said.

She started to pedal off, and Ross looked away from Billy. She felt something warm above her lip, and wiped at it with her fingers. Lightning flashed above them, and the dark red blood was clear in the brief light.

.

They ran all the way to Castle Byers. There was no time to waste, and the quicker they got there the quicker they could leave, Richie theorized. It was actually more difficult than they'd thought. Their sprint was more of a jog, so they wouldn't slip in mud puddles the size of small lakes. Richie was taking up the rear, mainly because he was moving the slowest.

In his defense, he was so cold his fingers were starting to go numb. He felt like he was out in the snow instead of the rain. And to add onto that, he had make sure he didn't run into any trees or something. It was already hard to see in the dark, and the water was fucking with his glasses.

"Will!" Mike shouted. He and Lucas both picked up speed, so Richie figured they were close. He went faster so he wouldn't be left behind.

"Will!" Lucas called.

They ran out into the tiny clearing where Castle Byers usually stood in the woods. Key word: usually.

Richie wipes some water off of his lenses and took in the ruined fort. "Holy shit!"

Will was standing in front of it, facing away from them.

"What happened?" Mike asked him. "Are you okay?"

"Will?" Lucas said.

As they got closer, Will turned around to face them. Despite standing in the freezing rain, without a coat of any sort to try and cover him, he didn't look cold at all. He only faced them, and his expression was unreadable to the point it was almost scary.

"He's back."

.

Ross made room for El on the bed when she came back from the bathroom. Max turned to face her, careful not to elbow Ross in the face. She held up some comic books.

"Which one?" She asked with a smile.

The Mayfield girl was trying hard to cheer them up after their visit to Heather's house. They hadn't actually talked about what happened yet. It was like if they talked about it out loud, they'd have to face the implications of what it all meant.

Or what it could mean. It was still on very confusing, and when Ross tried to sort it out in her own head it didn't make a lot of sense. Something was obviously wrong with Billy. She'd initially thought he was going to dive off the deep end and become a spree killer. No offense to Max, but Ross wouldn't be surprised if he actually murdered someone.

And the fact that he could see El back in the Void didn't make any sense either. Did he have some sort of powers, too? Now she was just pulling stuff out of her ass, but it's the only reason she could think of.

"I don't know," El said. She looked between Wonder Woman and Green Lantern and pulled the blanket into her lap. She sunk down next to Ross, her expression downcast. El was definitely affected the most by what had happened.

Ross supposed she had good reason.

"Hey, there's nothing to worry about anymore, okay?" Max said. "Both if you."

Max was in denial. She wanted to just believe it was a simply dinner date they'd walked in on or something. Ross couldn't blame her. Billy was her brother.

"It doesn't make sense," El said quietly.

"What doesn't make sense?"

"Heather. The blood. The ice."

Max shook her head. She said, "Heather had a fever, so she took a cold bath. But she's better now. That _has _to be it."

Ross and El exchanged nervous glances.

"I don't know where that blood came from," Max went on, "but...we saw her. We all saw her. She's totally fine."

"What about Billy?" El asked.

"What about him?"

"He seemed _wrong_," El told her.

Max let out a puff of hair, like a laugh. "Wrong is kind of like his default."

"It was worse than usual," Ross muttered.

"He's always like that," Max shook her head. "But it's nice to know he's not a murderer, because that would have totally sucked." She laughed again, trying to make the conversation turn to something more cheerful.

El looked away, a small smile on her face. Ross kind of wanted to press on. Tell Max that something seriously wasn't right. But El seemed tired. Thy all did. She didn't want to spark an argument right now. She'd much rather do it in the morning, when her head wasn't hurting anymore.

El turned her attention to the comics. She asked, "Who is that?" She pointed to the Wonder Woman issue.

Max gave her an incredulous look. "See _this _is why you can't just hang out with Mike all the time."

Ross snorted and turned slightly so she could lay her head on El's arm. "She's a superhero," she offered.

Max leaned back too, opening up the comic book. She set her arm on Ross's shoulder to use as an arm rest.

"This is Wonder Woman," she started. "A.k.a. Princess Diana. She's from Paradise Island, which is like, this hidden island where there are only women Amazon warriors."

Ross closed her eyes, pulling herself to sleep, sandwiched between Max and Eleven.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own the idea, plot, or characters of Stranger Thing and IT.**

* * *

**A/N: Anddd we're back! I know this took forever and I'm sorry. There was a lot of stuff I wasn't sure how to write out, and even a few things I wanted to put in but ended up scrapping. To sort of make up for it, this chapter is around 2,000 words longer than the last. But anyways, it's here! Chapter six, please enjoy!**

**-blockthewriter**

* * *

Ross woke up from a dreamless sleep to the phone going off. She sat up from her spot on the floor (she'd migrated there in the middle of the night) and watched Max as she climbed out of bed with a huff.

She marched across the room to the phone and snatched it up. "I'm sleeping. Go away!" She went to slam the phone back down onto the receiver, but the quiet voice coming out of the speaker made her pause. Ross couldn't hear the words clearly from where she was, but they were enough to make Max raise the phone back up to her ear.

El was sitting in the bed, looking just and confused and tired as Ross felt. She raised her eyebrows at El, but the brunette just shrugged at her. She didn't know what was going on.

Ross climbed back onto the bed and seated herself next to El, leaning against he headboard.

"What are you talking about?" Max asked whoever was on the other end of the line.

"You think it's one of the boys?" Ross asked El.

"Yes," she said. Then she turned back around and dropped face first onto the mattress. Clearly she still wanted to get a few more hours of sleep in. Ross didn't even want to know how early it was.

"What?" Max's face twisted up with confusion.

If it was one of the boys, it clearly wasn't about the mall incident and Mike and El's break up. Max listened for a few more moments, and she turned around to look at El and Ross. Eventually, whoever called must have hung up, because Max just lowered the phone from her ear, looking shocked.

"Who was it?" Ross asked.

"Mike," Max said numbly.

El lifted her head from the pillow just enough to turn look back over her shoulder at Max. "What did he say?"

.

After several attempts at getting a hold of the girls, Mike finally managed to catch Max in a phone call. When he hung up, he seemed sure that they would be on their way soon. Richie was sort of surprised. He figured they would hold out on their grudge until the boys came crawling back to them.

When they finally found their way to the Wheeler house and got to the basement, the tension rose. Mike and Eleven didn't say a word to each other. In fact, the telekinetic acted like he wasn't even there, which Richie found kind of funny. Lucas looked like he wanted to say something to Max, but she was probably warding him off with the killer glares she kept tossing him and Mike. Ross looked dead on her feet, and she completely ignored the way everyone was acting. Instead she just beelined it to the couch and sat down, looking like she wanted to do nothing else than go back to bed.

Eventually, after they got down to business, the awkward air in the room dissipated. It was replaced by something a lot more ominous that Richie didn't exactly care for. This was all too serious for his taste. He'd rather go back to the petty dating bullshit.

"I didn't think it was anything at first," Will said. "I mean, I think I just didn't want to believe it. The first time I felt it was at the _Day of the Dead_."

Richie remembered the nosebleed Ross had gotten that night. It was the first one she'd had in forever where her head had hurt. It seemed like their situation was about to get a whole lot worse. Things could never go right for him, could they?

He was about to get his second summer of giant evil monsters that wanted to kill him and his friends. Fantastic.

"And then I felt it again at the field near the Nelson farm the next day," Will said. "Then again yesterday outside Castle Byers."

"What does it feel like?" Max asked him.

"It's almost like...you know when you drop on a roller coaster?" he asked them.

"Sure," Mike said.

"Yeah," Max nodded

"No," El said.

El had said it so seriously that Richie couldn't help but let out a little laugh. No one else found it funny though, naturally. They all threw him a look and Lucas slapped his shoulder.

"Alright, I'm sorry," Richie said, trying to force his grin down. He nodded to Will. "Go on."

"It's like...everything inside your body is just sinking all at one, but this is _worse_," Will told them. "Your body...it goes cold and—and you can't breathe. I've felt it before, whenever he was close."

"Whenever who was close?" Max asked.

"The Mind Flayer."

They all exchanged glances. Richie locked eyes with Ross and saw the unease written in her features.

"I closed the gate," El said slowly.

"I know, but...what if he never left?" Will asked, looking to El. "What if we locked him out here with us?"

Ross sat up, shaking her head. "But—But the demodogs. Didn't they die after she closed the gate? The whole point of closing the gate was to cut them off from the Mind Flayer. If they died that means it worked, right?"

"Yes, But it's like...here—" Will grabbed a piece of paper and a stick of charcoal (Richie wondered why Mike just happened to have a stick of that shit laying around) and began to draw.

"This is him. All of him." He drew out a rough sketch of the Mind Flayer. Big head, octopus arms and all. "But, that day on the field, a part of him attached itself to me."

He swiped his hand across the drawing, effectively smearing his lovely work of art, and leaving some charcoal marks on his hand.

"My mom got it out of me, and Eleven closed the gate." He flipped the paper over onto it's blank side. "But the part that was still in me—"

"It's still here," Ross muttered.

Will patted his hand on the paper, leaving a dark imprint of his hand. "In Hawkins."

"I don't understand," Max said. "The demo dogs died when El closed the gate. If the brain dies, the body dies. Wouldn't the part of him that was still in you did, too?"

Richie was confused, too. He saw what Will was saying, he understood it. But Max also had a good point. Why did the demo dogs die, but the part in Will didn't?

"It doesn't matter. Bottom line, we can't take any chances," Mike said. "We need to assume the worse. The Mind Flayer's back."

"I hate assuming the worse," Richie groaned.

"Yeah," Will said. "And if he is back, he'd want to attach himself to someone again. A new me."

"A new host," Lucas said.

They were so in sync, it was hard not to notice. Simultaneously, all three girls looked up at each other. It looked like they had a silent conversation in a matter of seconds. El looked concerned. Max looked nervous. And Ross, she looked terrified.

She backed away from the table. "Give me a sec." She walked off to the bathroom.

"Is she cool?" Richie asked the girls.

Mike shook his head. "I'll check on her in a second. Give her a bit of time."

Jealousy nipped at him ever so slightly.

El looked to Will. "How can you tell if someone is a host?"

.

El and Max gave the boys a run down of what happened the day before. After some unexpected eye contact with Billy in the void, the girls had tracked him down. What they found wasn't exactly comforting. Max seemed in denial, and Mike couldn't exactly blame her. El, she was basically refusing to make eye contact with him, but he could still tell she was worried. Nervous and probably scared beyond her wits at the thought of the Mind Flayer being back.

And then there was Ross. Mike had waited until the girls were done explaining and they'd come up with the start of a plan (go spy on the guy at the pool) before he went in to talk to Ross. Mike could tell Richie wanted to, the Tozier boy kept looking at the bathroom door like he was waiting for her to come out. But Mike, no offense to Richie, didn't exactly trust him to be serious enough for the conversation. He told Richie that he would handle it, and to wait with the others in the garage.

Mike guessed what was bothering her. The idea of the Mind Flayer being back probably scared the shit out of her. He knew she still had nightmares about the Upside Down, she told him about them. He knew that she would rather go straight down to hell in a hand basket than go back to the Upside Down.

She was sitting on the edge of the bathtub when he knocked on the door and poked his head in. Her hands were buried into her hair and she didn't look up when he sat next to her.

"You okay?" He asked. Of course she wasn't, but he had to start somewhere.

"I've got a bad feeling," she said.

"I figured as much," he said. "But, I mean, hopefully it's nothing."

She shook her head and looked at him. "It's not nothing. You said it yourself, we have to assume the worst. He's back, I can tell."

"Like how Will can tell?"

"No, not like that," she said. "I mean, I've been getting more headaches and nosebleeds than usual. That can only mean so much. And then I've just got this _feeling_, but not like Will's. I don't even know if I can call it a feeling. I just know."

"Do you think it's Billy? That he's the new host?"

"Yeah," Ross nodded. "I know Max doesn't want to think so, but something's wrong. When we saw him last night, he was off. Even more so than usual. I felt like he saw right through me."

"What do you mean?" Mike asked.

"I just felt like he knew what I was afraid of. That I was scared of the Mind Flayer coming back," she said quietly. "Of—of the demogorgon. Scared of having to, you know...go _back_there."

She took a moment and wiped away some tears that had yet to fall. "I know its stupid," she said. "Will was in there for a week and he's not acting like a baby. Hell, he was _possessed_. And El, she'd been in the Upside Down before. She had to go close the gate. She had to kill a demogorgon—for us. I was in the Upside Down for not even a day, and I'm here panicking over nothing."

"Don't think like that," Mike said, setting a hand on her shoulder. "Your fears are justified. Who cares if you weren't in there as long, it was still scary. It still _is _scary, and that's okay. You aren't going to let it stop you. You're too hard headed for that. Hair is too thick."

Ross snorted, and Mike smiled. That was good, he made her laugh. This was why he didn't send Richie in. The kid might have been able to make a joke, but he wouldn't have been tactful about it at all.

"Whatever happens, we'll all face it together," he told her. "We'll figure it out, and we'll stop it while we're ahead. You won't have to go back there. I promise."

He held out his pinky for her (she took pinky swears extremely serious) and she eyed it wearily.

She must've known it wasn't something he could guarantee. Shit happened, and there was no saying whether or not they'd have to take a visit for some reason or another, planned or not. Hopefully, it never came down to that, but there was no telling.

If Mike could keep her out of the Upside Down out of sheer determination he would. And if she did have to go back, he would make sure she didn't have to go alone.

"Roslyn King, I pinky promise you that you won't be going to the Upside Down anytime soon," he said "And if you do, I'll be right there next to you. We all will."

A pretty bold promise (he even used her full name, which meant he was dead serious) but he knew it would make her feel better.

She linked her pinky with his and squeezed it tightly.

"Besides," Mike added. "I don't think Richie would last a week without you around. Or any of us, for that matter."

It was probably true, too. Richie and Ross were as thick as thieves. Sometimes Mike got a little jealous, because he used to be that close with Ross. But then he remembered that he really still was, he just wasn't as wild as either of them were. Less likely to do stupid things, in his opinion.

Ross laughed. "You guys would fall apart without me."

"Of course we would," he said. He leaned in and gave her a side hug, which she returned gratefully. Her hair tickled his face, and he batted it away. "Now come on, the others are waiting for us. El and Max told us everything, so we're going to the pool to watch Billy."

He got up and made for the door, but Ross stopped him.

"Hold on a sec," she said. "I wanna tell you before we go. You need to talk to El."

He scowled down at the floor. "Like she'll talk to me. She's been avoiding me this whole time!"

Ross shrugged. "Well, if you get a chance, ask to talk. Apologize for lying, then explain why you did it."

"It was Hopper," he said. "He told me I was spending too much time with her."

"I mean, he's right. No—don't argue. You two _do _spend a lot of time together," Ross said when she saw the look on his face. "I don't know a lot about dating, but I think you both need space. El needs to hang out with us girls some more."

"She hangs out with you guys," he argued.

"Only when you're around," she said. "Look, I'm not trying to argue, or choose a side. I don't think you should have lied to her. I think she should have just confronted you about it in the beginning and let you explain."

It felt an awful lot like she was choosing a side, _Hopper's side_, but he let it slide. She'd talked to him before about how much him and El hang out, and how she wanted them to spend more time with all of them. She wasn't being selfish or crazy like Hopper was. And hearing her say that El had also sorta acted out made him feel better, too.

"You guys just need to talk it out. If you guys get back together, great. If you don't, that's fine, too." His expression must've went sour because she rolled her eyes, which kind of annoyed him. "Not saying I want or think you guys should break up. Just saying that if you _do _it wouldn't be the end of the world, okay?"

"Okay," he grumbled.

He debated telling her about what happened with Will, but decided not to. She already had a lot on her mind, and he wasn't exactly willing to have that conversation yet. He'd messed up—bad. He knew that. But they had enough drama going on at the moment.

.

They wound up at the pool, opting to observe Billy from a distance. Hopefully, no one would get too suspicious about seven kids hanging around a car that definitely wasn't theirs, watching the pool with binoculars.

And hopefully, the actual owner of the car wouldn't show up. Ross couldn't see Billy very well from where they were, and they only had one pair of binoculars, so she was just sitting on the hood of the car. Richie was leaning against it, between her knees, and she was trying to braid some of his hair.

She could tell he was worried about her, and wanted to make her feel better, because he wasn't even snapping at her when she pulled to hard or tried to run her hands through a knot in his curls. She was very thankful, it was a great distraction. Plus, his hair was pretty soft too. It wasn't extremely long, just super thick, so she had a lot to work with.

"I don't know," Max said, pulling the binoculars from her face. "He looks pretty normal to me."

"Normal?" Lucas asked. "How many times have you seen him with a shirt on?"

"He has a point," Richie said, tilting his head back as Ross started over on a braid. "I didn't even know Billy _owned_a shirt."

"I mean, it's a _little_weird," Max admitted.

"More than a little," Mike said. "He was in a tub with ice. The Mind Flayer likes it cold. Plus, with everything else—"

"But, he's lounging at the pool," Max interrupted. "Which is like, the least Mind Flayer thing ever."

"Maybe the Mind Flayer needs money," Ross said. She tugged on a small knot in Richie's hair without warning, and he hissed between his teeth. "Gotta get it somehow."

"If he chose Billy as his host," Richie said, "I think he'd get more money working the corner."

"Working the corner?" El asked.

He started to laugh, so Ross pulled his hair sharply. "Ow!" But she would admit, it was kind of funny.

"Shut up," Max said. "My point is, he's just sitting there. Wouldn't he be like—plotting something evil?"

"Not necessarily," Will said. They all turned to look at him like it was story time. "The Mind Flayer likes to hide. He only used me when he needed me. It's like...you're dormant. And then, when he needs you, you're activated."

Ross tried to imagine some giant shadow monster pressing Billy's on button, which just made him run around and angrily punch things.

"Okay," Max said. "So we just...wait until he gets activated."

Mike aimed and shot the idea down immediately. "No. What if he hurts someone?"

"Or kills someone?" Will added.

"That escalated quickly," Ross muttered under her breath. She rain her fingers through the unfinished braids on the back of Richie's head, giving up on detangling the rats nest at the base of his neck. He turned sideways to give Mike his full attention, cause he was getting into Leader Mode.

"We can't take any chances," he told them. "We need to find out if he's the host."

"And just how, oh smart one," Ross said, "do you propose we do that?"

Ever one for dramatics, Mike didn't answer her, and instead just stuff off and started to walk towards the pool.

"Where are you going?" El asked with annoyance. It was the first words she'd said today that were actually directed at him, and he spun around as soon as they left her mouth.

"I have an idea," he said, walking backwards and trying not to bump into cars. "Boys only. Richie, you stay here."

Uh, what?

"Seriously?!" Richie and Max complained at the same time.

Ross frowned as Mike waved Will and Lucas over. "Just trust me on this one," he said.

The remaining of them all huffed and pouted for a few seconds about being left out, but then Richie swung his head to them with an all-too-innocent look.

He raised his eyebrow and said, "Soo...these sleepovers you've been having. What _exactly _do you guys do? And be completely honest, I won't judge if you get a little freaky—"

"Can you shut the fuck up?" Ross asked him, lifting up one of her legs and pushing him away with her foot.

He held his hands up defensively. "Hey, hey, it was just a question!"

"Do you have an off button or something?" Max grumbled.

"You've all been so seriously lately, I haven't even been able to say my _good_jokes," he complained. "You're leaving me high and dry here, ladies! It doesn't help that half of them fly over E.T.'s head here!"

He gestured over to El, who looked like she didn't know whether to be confused or offended.

"What's E.T. mean?"

"See!"

"It's not our fault," Max started patronizingly, "that you wouldn't know what serious meant if it hit you in the face."

"Well, serious hit you in the face," Richie said back, "and _apparently _it left a bad taste in your mouth!"

Ross covered her mouth, trying—and failing—to hide her laugh. "Okay, that one was actually funny."

"Yeah, because it wasn't disgusting for one," Max said.

"Can't say the same about your attitude," Richie snapped back.

Ross was torn over whether she should break up the fight or not. It was pretty funny watching them go at it, but she also knew that it could take a turn for the worst real quickly. El was watching the two of them suspiciously, like she couldn't tell if Richie was being serious and if Max was actually mad at him or not. She was probably just mad at Mike, and was taking it out on Richie because he conveniently set himself up as a target with that mouth of his.

"Oh give me a break! Mike just completely ditched us to go make a plan!"

And there it was.

"Doesn't mean you get to ditch your sene of humor," Richie said.

"At least I didn't ditch my brain!"

Now the jabs were getting stupid. The argument was lacking any real venom, they were both just too stubborn to _not_have the last word.

"I don't need a brain to be funny," Richie said.

"That might be true, if you were funny," Ross cut in, deciding to end the argument for them. She grinned when Richie clapped a hand over his heart dramatically.

"Ahh! That one really hurt, Ross," Richie groaned. "Got me right in the heart."

She opened her mouth to say more, but El cut her off with a question.

"Why didn't they let Richie go?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Richie said blandly, casting a look over at the pool.

"He tends to cause problems," Ross said. Richie slapped her arm, and she reached over to hit him back. As the two descended into a slap battle, Max raised raised the binoculars to her eyes and spied over at the pool.

"I don't know," she said. "But they better have a good excuse for making us girls wait out here."

"Ow!" Ross exclaimed when Richie landed one on her cheek with a sharp sting. It wasn't enough to actually hurt her, but the triumphant look on his face would make him regret it. She grinned back at him maliciously.

"Your face looks evil like that—OW!"

"They probably think we're _not logical_," she said, rolling her eyes.

She said it with so much venom and mockery that it completely caught Richie off guard. He dropped his jaw and stared at her, giving Ross the opportunity to smack him straight back upside the head.

"Whoa, hold on," he said, straightening out his glasses again. "Hold on. What'd she just say?"

"That you boys don't think we're logical. That we act on _emotion_," Max said.

"Well yeah, I heard that," Richie rolled his eyes. "But why'd she say it like—wait a second. That was what Lucas—"

"We heard," El said shortly.

"What? Did you use your freaky mind powers to listen in on us?" Richie asked. For a second, Ross thought he was going to be offended. But then he crossed his arms and nodded. "That's ballsy. I'm impressed."

"Oh great, that's exactly what we were aiming for," Max said sarcastically. Richie played along, holding his hands up like he was guilty for being so fantastic.

"I mean, I'll admit, I know I'm hot stuff. But you guys don't have to try and impress me or anything, you already—"

Ross's super comm crackled to life, cutting Richie off.

"_You guys there?_" It was Mike.

Max scowled and snatched up the radio from the car's hood. "Right where you left us," she said. "You guys done with the _boys only_plan?"

"Yeah, what's up with that crap, Wheeler?" Richie asked. "I'm more man than any of you sissies, why was I left out?"

"_Part of this plan includes the sauna of the boys locker room_," Mike explained. "_And I wouldn't have put it passed you to piss of a bunch of fat sweaty dudes in towels with that mouth of yours_."

"Well that makes sense," Ross said. "Good call." Richie punched her shoulder, and she grinned at him sweetly.

"_Yeah, but I'll explain everything when we get back. For now, I need El to come down here and pop some locks for us. We need to get one of the life guard dummies._"

"Life guard dummies?" El asked. They were all thinking it. How the hell was doll going to help them find out if Billy was fucking possessed or not?

"_Yeah, they're in the storage room, which is locked. Can you come down?_" Mike asked. "_I want the others to wait there, we'll meet back up when we've got what we need._"

Max grumbled something about being left out again, and looked up to match El's gaze. She took her finger off the button so Mike wouldn't be able to hear what they said next.

"You sure you don't want one of us to come with you?" She asked. "I wouldn't put it past Mike to try and corner you."

"Alright," Ross sighed, shaking her head. "Give the guy a break. I know he lied, but he feels like shit about it."

"He does?" El asked suspiciously.

"Yes. He told me."

"Carrots is right," Richie said, leaning sideways against the car between Ross's knees and hooking an arm around her neck. "Mike was _all _broken up about it. Wouldn't shut up about you."

He pulled Ross close so they were cheek to cheek and put on the most depressed face he could pull off. "_Oh, what if she never talks to me again. What did I do? How do I fix it?_" He mimicked, sliding a hand down his face and managing to make all of the girls crack a smile.

"_Hey_," Mike said over the speaker. "_You guys still there? Is El coming down?_"

"You don't have to forgive him or anything," Ross told El. "Just because he feels bad doesn't really make it right. Just don't be _too _harsh, yeah?"

"He's sensitive," Richie said. Ross elbowed him in the gut.

"Alright," El conceded with a nod.

"She's coming down," Max said into the super comm. "Hold your horses."

"_Okay. We should all be back soon_."

"Yeah, whatever," Max rolled her eyes. They waved as El started off towards the pool.

"This should be interesting," Richie said, slipping his arm off of Ross so he could turn to watch El go. Max didn't say anything and lifted the binoculars back to her eyes, so he turned back to Ross.

"Did you miss me?" He asked cheekily.

"Oh, terribly," Ross said dryly. "It was the worst few days of my life."

"More like the best," Max said without looking away from the pool.

"But seriously," Richie said, hopping up onto the hood, in the space between Max and Ross. "What did you guys go? Does Hopper know you took El to the mall?"

"Nope," Max said.

"And he's not going to," Ross said, giving Richie a pointed look that said '_keep your lips sealed or it's your funeral_'. "He'd kick our asses into the next decade. As far as he's concerned, we listened to music and read magazines and comics."

"But you guys were actually out trying to track down Billy," he said.

"Not at first. And not really track him. El just got a bad feelings, so we investigated."

"I'm starting to wish we hadn't," Max said miserably.

"It's better than being caught off guard," Ross said.

"Yeah. You could have found out when he suddenly goes all serial killer and shit," Richie said. He made rapid stabbing motions in the air, before Max turned to him with a withering glare.

"Can we _not _talk about him going serial killer? I know he's an asshole, but he's still my brother." She started off sharp, but her voice turned soft near the end, revealing a sadness and worry she'd done a good job of concealing until then. Almost as quick as it came though, it disappeared.

"Sorry," Richie said genuinely. This caught both the girls—Max more so than Ross—of guard. It was rare for him to apologize for what he says and means it.

"If we're lucky, it won't be him," he continued, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe it'll be someone less jacked like—like Mr. Wheeler."

Ross scoffed and said, "That would require him to leave his chair.

Max laughed, loud and genuine. "Which is never going to happen."

.

The plan was relatively simple. To keep it short, they would all hang around until the pool closed and everyone was gone. Then, using a life guard dummy, a walkie talkie, and some of El's handy dandy powers, they would lure Billy into the sauna, lock it tight, then crank up the heat.

Ross had to hand it to Mike—it was clever, and honestly something she would have never thought of. If she were in charge, they'd just follow Billy around and try to antagonize him until he snapped.

She and Richie were in charge of locking the outside door of the Men's Locker room, so Billy couldn't get out. The rest were inside, hiding in some janitor's closet.

"_You guys ready?_" Lucas asked via super comm.

"Ready steady," Ross said.

"_Great. He just got out of the showers now, it's your move_."

"Copy that."

She lowered the radio and nodded to Richie.

His grin was a bit too enthusiastic as he grabbed the handle of the door and yanked it open as fast and hard as he could. Metal screeched, and the momentum swung the door all the way open until it hit the wall. The goal was to make Billy think that someone was still inside, which worked.

Billy's voice echoed off the walls. "Pool's closed."

"Go," Ross whispered to Richie, holding up the lock.

Richie slammed the door back shut. They heard a muffled yell from Billy followed by a loud bang. Quickly, he swung the little latch over the door, and Ross stepped up next to him to slide the lock in place.

"Do you hear me?" Billy shouted from inside. He was definitely a lot closer now, which didn't exactly help Ross's building panic. She couldn't get the damn lock to work!

"Hurry up," Richie hissed at her.

"I'm trying!"

"Pool is closed!" He was right on the other side of the door, now. If she didn't get this locked, she could only imagine how the hell Billy would react at seeing them. It was no mystery he hated Ross, and he'd probably drag Richie into just because Billy knew he was friends with her.

She finally managed to get the lock to click in place, just as she shooed a particularly gruesome image of Billy playing the drums with her and Richie's femurs.

Just in time, too. The door jolted in place, scaring the two of them so bad they jump a few feet away.

It was Billy on the inside, banging and shaking the door. It lasted for about a minute or so, and then got deadly quiet, which was weird. Ross had expected a lot more yelling.

"Who's there?" Billy asked after a moment.

Ross and Richie sent each other twin glances. Now it was time for the plan to really kick off. They both stepped to the door and pressed their their ears to it.

Through the metal they could dimly hear Mike's voice calling out Billy's name, playful and mocking.

"Who's there?" Billy called back, using a sing-song voice. Even with a tone of voice that usually sounded playful, he managed to make it sound downright unsettling. Like he wasn't quite right in the head. Ross wondered if it was the mullet.

As his footsteps stomped off, further into the building, they pulled their ears from the door. Richie undid the padlock as quickly as he could, shoving the key back in his pocket as Ross inched the door open.

It was a tight fit. She opened it as little as she could to avoid the door squeaking, which would inevitably draw Billy back in their direction. That event would likely not end in giggles and smiles

Richie slid through first, then held it open for her as she followed. Billy was somewhere in the shower room, yelling at Mike's disembodied voice. They followed him silently, always waiting until he turned the corner to go after him, so they wouldn't be seen.

Truthfully, Ross was very anxious about the thought of Billy turning around and seeing them. Her and Richie would be, in the nicest way possible, dead.

Billy threw open the door to the large room that lead to the sauna. It help a lot of weight lifting equipment, and somewhere on the right side of the room was the closet that everyone else was hiding in.

Ross leapt forward quietly to catch the door before it closed all the way. Her and Richie both peaked their heads inside, spying as Billy faced the sauna doors.

"Got you," he said. If hearing people smile in their voices was a thing, the one Ross just listened to would have been a little too malicious for her liking.

He started towards the door, and Ross could see the silhouette of the dummy in person. At first glance, it might have actually looked like a person, but the longer one stared the faker it got. Billy must have been really out of it to not realize he was getting tricked.

He let out a sadistic laugh that sounded freakishly close to the stereotypical cackle of some insane serial killer, and clapped his hands together. He seemed awfully excited to his his hands on whoever he though was inside that sauna. So much, in fact, that Ross was now way more concerned for his reaction after he realized what was up. He was going to throw a temper tantrum, like a toddler getting his toy taken away but with a little bit of murder.

"_Come and get me, you piece of shit_."

Another thing Billy didn't notice was that the voice he was hearing was Mike's, and that not only could it be heard from the super comm in the sauna, but also from the side closet they were all hiding in.

Billy opened the door to the sauna, and immediately noticed something was up. It might have been because the dummy's dolls were so clearly fake, and also the fact that it was hanging from the ceiling with a super comm taped to it.

He surged forward with a grunt and grabbed the dummy by it's throat. Quietly, El stepped out of the side closet and nodded over to Ross and Richie. They slipped all the way into the room and stood behind her as she took her place in front of the sauna door.

"_Hey," _Mike's voice crackled through speaker. "_Behind you_."

Billy spun around to face them, and boy did he look pissed. He was still soaked from his shower, and his eyes were dark. Ross was pretty sure she could see a vein popped out of his forehead.

"Hi," El said to him.

Billy threw the doll to the side, and got as far as one step forward before El threw him backwards with a jerk of her head. He slammed into the wall so hard that the tiles behind him shattered on impact. He collapsed into a pile on the floor, and the rest of the party burst out of the closet.

"Now!" Mike shouted.

El used her powers to slam the door shut, just as Billy got up and charged at it. Mike shoved a metal rod through the door handle and the steam pipe next to the door. Then, Will wrapped a change around the handle and the pipe and Lucas snapped a lock on it.

As soon as they were done, the boys put several feet between them and the door. Billy was just on the other side of it, grunting as he body slammed the door, trying to open it. After seeing he wasn't going to get anywhere, he stopped and looked at them through the glass.

He looked nothing short of crazy. His eyes focused in on Eleven at first, glaring harshly, but then he looked past her and saw Max. He pressed his forehead to the glass and said, "Max."

All eyes turned to her. She was still, staring straight back at him. She looked terrified, but like she didn't want to let him, or any of them, see.

"Do it," she said after a moment.

Will rushed to the heat gauge next to the door, and turned it all the way up. Billy watched him as far as he could through the glass, and stepped away from the door when he realized what was happening.

He let out an angry shout and charged around the tiny room, throwing the dummy around. They could already see that the heat was quickly rising inside. Steam began to fog up the window, making it harder to see inside.

"Max!" Billy yelled, pounding on the door. "Let me out of here!"

His voice echoed. It sounded course and raw, like he'd just drank some sand.

"Let me out! You kids...you think this is funny?" He looked them all over, and when his eyes met Ross's, a shiver went down her spine. "You kids think this is some kind of sick prank, huh? You little shits think this is funny?! What is this?!"

He spit on the window, and then began to pace around.

Ross glanced over to Richie, who was staring towards the door with his eyes blown wide. All of them, and probably herself too, looked incredibly nervous. Perfectly understandable, given the circumstances, but it made Ross desperately wish they were somewhere else.

What were they doing here? How did they always end up in shitty, dangerous situations? Why them?

She didn't have much time to mull over it before Billy was in front of the window again.

"Open the door," he said. He voice was deadly calm, like he thought if he didn't yell they might listen. When none of them budged, he hit the door and shouted, "Open the door!"

They all jumped backwards. Ross's head began to hurt.

Billy started screaming, pressing his face against the glass. "Open the door! Open the goddamn door!" After a moment, he dropped out of sight. They could hear him pounding on the floor, screaming his head off.

Ross stepped forward while he was down, and took a look at the gauge. "We're at 220." That had to be insanely hot, no wonder Billy was going off his rocker. Well, that and the fact he was supposedly possessed, but still.

They all exchanged quick glances, wondering how long it would take to find out what the needed to. At this point, Ross was positive that the Mind Flayer was inside of Billy, but how long would it take for them to get it out? Did it need to be hotter? How long would Billy be able to stand it?

Inside the sauna, Billy shouts turned to sobs. Ross gave them all a skeptical look, and took a step closer to the door.

Through the window, she could make out Billy on the floor. He was leaning against the bench on the far wall.

"It's not my fault. It's not my fault," he moaned. "It's not my fault, Max. I promise you, it's not my fault."

Max came and stood by Ross, taking a look at Billy through the glass. He had his palms pressed together, like he was praying—no, _pleading _at Max. His face was twisted with anguish, and for the moment, Ross began to feel sorry for him.

Sure, he was mean, racist, and probably capable of murder even without the Mind Flayer's influence, but he didn't ask for it. He didn't ask for any of it to happen.

"What's not your fault, Billy?" Max asked.

"I've done things, Max," Billy said. He voice was shaking. Really... _bad_things. I didn't mean to. He made me do it."

He looked so sorry. He looked so sad, like he regretted everything and wanted to change.

"Who made you do it?" Max asked.

"I don't know, it's like a shadow." At Billy's words. The Mind Flayer. "Like a giant shadow. Please, Max."

Billy's skin was turning red now from the heat, and he looked on the verge of tears.

"What did he make you do?" Max asked shakily.

"It's not my fault, okay? Max, please." He rocked onto his side and set his head on the bench. "Please, believe me, Max. It's not my fault!"

Max took a deep breath, and a few tears rolled down her face. Ross reached down and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly.

"I tried to stop him, okay? I did," Billy told them. "Please believe me, Max. Please believe me."

Max lifted her other hand and pressed it to the glass. "Billy, it's gonna be okay."

"Max, please."

Ross felt her nose drip. She lifted her free hand and wiped away some blood.

"It's gonna be okay," Max said. Her voice shook with every word. "We want to help you. You just have to talk to us, okay? You have to talk to us."

Ross glanced between the blood smeared on her hand, and Billy. He looked so scared, like he wanted nothing more than for it all to stop.

Max was still talking to him. "I believe you, Billy. We'll figure it out together, okay?"

Could they figure it out? Ross wasn't sure.

"I need you to trust me," Max said. "Please."

From behind them, Mike said, "Get away from the door."

Ross looked over her shoulder at him, and he met her eyes. He took in the blood, and his eyes grew wide.

"What?" Max asked.

"Get away from the door!" Mike shouted.

Ross turned back around, and the glass window on the door shattered. Max screamed and dropped left, pulling Ross down to the ground with her.

"Holy shit!" she heard Richie shout.

"Let me out, you bitch!" Billy hollered. He had his head and one arm stuck out the window. His face was twisted with anger, and he held a tile shard in his hand. "Let me out!"

He stabbed at the wall next to them, and Max and Ross scrambled to their feet. They pressed up against the sports equipment behind them, trying to get as far from Billy's swinging arm as they could.

"I'll fucking gut you!"

After a few more pointless stabs at nothing, he stopped the shard and went for the pipe that was wedged between the handle and steam pipe instead. He pulled it free and launched it at them like a spear. They both dodged, and Ross picked it up when it clattered to the floor.

Billy started to yank on the chains, clearly looking to escape. Lucas pulled out his Rocket Launcher and aimed a rock straight at Billy's face. It must have been a pretty big rock, because the impact knocked Billy straight off of his feet. He went silent, and Ross wondered if Lucas had actually managed to knock the guy out.

"Come on!" Lucas waved Max and Ross over, and as soon as they reached the group the lights started to flicker.

"What's happening?" Ross asked, trying to wipe away the blood coming from her nose. It was honestly a wonder she hadn't died from too much blood loss or something yet.

"I don't know," Richie said, grabbing her arm and pulling her between him and El. "But I don't fucking like it."

Ross held the pipe with a death grip, like the metal rod was going to protect her from the flickering lights. They kept turning on and off, which couldn't mean anything good. She felt like something was going to jump out at them from nowhere. Her head was pounding, and it got a hell of a lot worse when Billy let out a huge roar like some deranged lion.

Standing in the frame of the shattered window, Billy looked was sweating (from the heat or demonic possession, maybe both), and he had ghastly looking black veins crawling along his skin. In some places, there were large rotten patches of skin, oozing some bodily fluid that probably wasn't healthy.

He charged at the door, and El spread her arms out in front of them, pushing them all backwards. For a second, Ross found herself wishing Steve was there. But then she remembered that Billy had absolutely crushed the guy in a fight, and figured Harrington wouldn't be ready for a Round Two. Especially know that Billy technically wasn't in control.

"He can't get out, can he?" Max asked breathlessly. Billy charged the door again, and Lucas shook his head.

"There's no way."

"Someone tell that to him," Richie muttered.

Billy kept pounding on the door. Ross figured the force would eventually snap the chain, but it held fast. Instead it was the pole that the chains were locked around that began to give. It bent more and more with each body slam Billy gave the door, and eventually it snapped.

Some sort of steam burst out of the pipe and Billy's momentum sent him rolling. They all screamed and took several quick steps back as he stood up.

El made sure they were all behind her, because let's face it, if any one was a match for him it was going to be her. It wasn't like she could take him in a fist fight, but with her powers she would probably last a lot longer than any of them.

Billy was breathing heavily, staring her down like he was a pull and she was holding a red banner in front of her.

El raised a hand up, pulling a lifting bar with two weight on either end into the air as she did. She launched it at Billy with a war cry, and he miraculously caught it with both hands. Was this guy even human? Did the Mind Flayer enhance his strength and reflexes or was he just always like that?

Still, his strength alone couldn't stop the force El put behind. He went flying across the room and into the brink wall. El raised her other hand, and the pressure on Friday bar began to increase, pinning him there. It looked like Billy was now just fighting to keep the metal from crushing his wind pipes as the plates on either end began to dig into the bricks.

For a few moments, it looked like El had him. He was stuck, struggling to keep the bar from choking him out or just straight up killing him. But then, he grunted and began to push the bar away from him. El started to scream with effort. The amount of strength Billy had was insane. With one last yell, he launched the bar straight back towards Eleven.

"What the fuck!" Richie yelled.

El narrowly dodged the projectile. She dropped to the floor to avoid getting decapitated. Billy wasted no time and surged forward, grabbing her by the ponytail.

Ross tightened her grip on the pipe, and without really thinking anything through, charged at him with a shout. She swung at him from left, and had a brief flashback to the Fall.

Billy had come close to just kicking the shit out of Lucas, before Ross intervened and tried to hit him with a piece of wood. Of course, he just caught the wooden rod and snapped it over his knee like it was a toothpick. Ross had felt way in over her head then, and she was feeling a similar emotion now.

Thankfully, she actually managed to hit him this time. She nailed him right in the side, which was good for her pride. But the she reared back to swing again, and Billy wasn't going to fall for the same thing twice. He cried out in rage and grabbed the pipe on her next swing.

He yanked on the rod hard, and she was gripping it tight enough that it threw her off balance. She pitched forward, and Billy grabbed the front of her shirt as she fell towards him.

He used her own momentum against her and tossed her over his head like she was nothing but a half-empty sack of potatoes. All of her air was knocked out of her when she hit the ground, and the pipe clattered out of her grasp.

"Ross!"

She was really too busy trying to catch her breath to pay attention to anything that happened in the next few seconds, but by then Richie was kneeling at her side. He helped her sit up, and she looked over just in time to see Billy lift El straight off the ground by her throat.

"Let her go you piece of shit!" Richie yelled.

Unsurprisingly, Billy didn't listen. El began to panic, kicking and hitting at him, but he didn't budge an inch. Ross started to look around for that metal rod again, and watched Mike pick it up off the ground on the corner.

He hit Billy with the pipe from behind, putting all of his might behind the swing. Billy, thank fuck, collapsed. He let go of Eleven, and she dropped to the floor right next to him.

"Go to hell, you piece of shit!" Mike shouted.

Just like Ross, he went in for a second hit. And just like Ross, Billy caught the pipe mid-swing. Whatever adrenaline Mike had going for him washed off of him within a second. He looked stunned as Billy ripped the pipe out of his grasp and threw it towards Ross and Richie without even looking.

Richie nearly took it straight to the face, but he managed to lean sideways far enough that it only clipped his shoulder. It still must have hurt like a son of a bitch.

"Fuck!" he hissed, grabbing the point of impact.

Ross really wanted to ask if he was okay, but the answer probably would have been something along the lines of 'Fuck no!', and she was also too busy panicking as Billy backed Mike up against the wall.

Just as he lifted a fist to inevitably punch the living daylights out of Mike, he was suddenly lifted off the ground.

They turned their heads back to Eleven, who was steadily rising to her feet with both hands outstretched towards Billy. Both of them were screaming, El probably from the effort, and Billy probably from pain.

El circled him until she was between him and Mike, bleeding out of both nostrils with tears streaming down her face. With a final burst of energy and a loud shout, Eleven swung her arms to the right.

Billy went soaring past Will, Lucas, and Max and crashed straight through the brick wall.

"Holy shit," Ross and Richie said in unison, staring out of the huge hole in the wall. That was going to be stumping the life guards in the morning.

Ross looked over as Eleven collapsed backwards onto Mike. She was openly sobbing now, probably spent from all of the energy and power she'd just used. Mike looked like he was still in shock, looking between the hole in the wall and Eleven while he cradled her in his arms.

Richie was on his feet first, moving over to help Mike pull El off of the ground. Ross stood up and moved over to the gaping hole. Billy was now a spec in the distance, running off to god-knows-where.

That was going to be a problem later.

But for the moment, they all wordlessly agreed to go back to the Wheeler household. El was looking ready to drop where she stood. Max was probably having a mental breakdown after seeing Billy go AWOL. And the rest of them were too freaked out to suggest another plan of action for the moment.

So they retreated to their bikes and pedaled home, keeping their eyes peeled incase Billy came back with a taste for vengeance.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own the ideas, characters, or plot of Stranger Things and IT.**

* * *

**A/N: Hello everyone! Telling you guys now that I'm not really sure if I liked how this chapter went or how I wrote it. I'm sure I'll end up liking it later when i get a few more chapters out of the way, but for now we'll have to wait and see. I also want to address a suggestion/request that I've gotten several times now about putting Stan's Bar Mitzvah speech in the last chapter when El and Will move away. At the moment, I'm not sure that I will, but I am considering it! There will be some parallels that Richie notices, and I might ****_maybe_**** include a little scene about him moving away from Derry. It's all up in the air right now, but for now I want to thank you all for reviewing and leaving suggestions! it means a lot and i love to hear about what you guys think is going to happen and what you want to see. Please keep doing it! For now though, I hope you enjoy this chapter! it's _wayyy_ longer than the others, I hope it makes up for the wait! I also apologize for any and all grammar and spelling mistakes. Till next time!**

**-blockthewriter**

* * *

After a fitful's nights rest (Ross was pretty sure the only one who actually slept was El, and that was only because she literally passed out as soon as they got to the house), they were all up early, devising a new plan.

It was pretty easy.

Step One: Find Hopper.

Step Two: Contact Hopper.

Step Three: Get Hopper to Help.

So they were using their handy dandy human-locator for Step One. El didn't look nearly as terrible as she did last night. Max and Ross had cleaned the blood off of her as best as they could while she was out cold, and after Ross had cleaned off her own blood of course. Thankfully, she didn't have any major bruising on her throat. There were a few inches of black and purple that were sensitive to the touch, but El had yet to actually complain about it. Ross didn't know if that was because she wasn't in any really bad pain, or if she was just too stubborn to admit it

Other than El, the only ones who got mildly injured were Ross and Richie. Ross was just banged up from being thrown like a rag doll. A few bruises here and there, and scraped knees and elbows.

Richie, on the other hand, had a huge bruise stretching across his shoulder from where that metal rod had hit him last night. It was honestly a miracle it wasn't dislocated or anything, because Billy was as strong as an ox and had quite the arm.

"I found him," El said. It had only been a minute or so after they'd set things up for her, but Ross also wasn't surprised. El always managed to find what she needed quickly.

"Where is he?" Max asked.

"Woods."

Even though she was sitting directly next to him, Ross still heard Richie mutter under his breath, "How specific." Mike, who was right behind him on a small stool, smacked him upside the head.

"Woods?" Lucas repeated.

"He's with...Will's mom," El elaborated. It didn't do much aside from give them more questions.

Will sat up straight. "My—my mom?"

"What are they doing?" Max asked.

"Are we _sure_ we want to know what they're doing?" Richie asked aloud. "You never know what kind of hanky panky they—" Thankfully, Mike hit him again.

"Ill...annoy," El said after a moment.

Everyone glanced around, not sure what she was getting at. It was moments like these they all remembered that she really didn't know as much as any of them.

"They're going to Ill-annoy," she said.

Again, no one seemed to really be picking up what she was putting down.

From above, someone knocked on the basement door.

"Mike!" Mrs. Wheeler called down. "Breakfast!"

"Not now, mom!" Mike shouted up at her. If Ross hadn't known him her whole life, she probably would have been as shocked at his tone as Max and Richie looked. Mike turned back around like it never happened. "Illinois? Illinois, like the state?"

El pulled off her blindfold, and Ross frowned.

"I thought it was Illi-noise," the redhead frowned, putting emphasis on the 's'.

"No, the 's' is silent," Lucas said. "Illinois."

Richie's Asshole-Opportunity-Radar must have dinged because he turned to Ross and started talking. "I can smell your stupid from over here," he teased her. "How did you not know what?"

"Well, my fucking bad, Tozier," she started. "Not all of us—"

"Not the time you guys," Mike reminded them. "Do you mean the state of Illinois?"

El shrugged. "Ill-annoy."

Seeing that they weren't gonna get much else from her, Max climbed to her feet and offered El a hand. "C'mon, lets go clean off that blood."

When the two retreated to the bathroom, Ross, Lucas, and Richie took over the couch. Mike got up and immediately started to pace around the room.

"Something's not right," he told the rest of them. "I can't get Hopper off my back all summer, and now all of a sudden, he's hiking with Will's mom to Illinois? And Dustin's MIA, too? I mean, this can't be a coincidence."

At some point when they'd gotten back the night before, while Max and Ross were trying to take care of El, the boys had tried to contact Dustin. They'd heard nothing, and tried again this morning to no avail.

"Weren't you the last one to see him?" Ross asked, frowning over at Richie. He shrugged and kicked his feet up into her lap.

"Yeah, after you all ditched us while waiting to hear back from his fake-girlfriend."

"Did he say anything about what he would be doing the next few days?" Mike asked.

"No. He started freaking out after we heard this Russian voice on some channel and went home in a hurry," Richie explained.

"A Russian voice? What was it saying?" Ross said.

"Well, they were _speaking_ Russian," he said slowly, assuming a voice that one would use while talking to a toddler. "Which—while being a man of many talents—I cannot do."

Ross hit him, and he grinned, but dropped the patronizing tone. "We don't know what it was saying, but he did say something about translating it."

"There's no way that would have him busy enough to just up and disappear," Mike said, continuing to tread a path in the carpet.

"What does it matter?" Lucas asked. He waved around the box of Cocoa Puffs he had in his hand. "The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us!"

"Up to us to go and do _what_ exactly?" Mike asked.

"Find Billy and stop him," Lucas said.

"Okay, yeah, and that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again—and that's a pretty big if—then what?"

Lucas shoved a handful of cereal into his mouth and said, "We burn the shit out of him, and make sure he doesn't escape this time."

Richie sighed dreamily. "Nothing says summer fun like burning potential serial killers alive."

"All in a day's work," Ross shrugged. At the glare Mike shot them for joking around, they high-fived.

"Okay, then what?" Mike demanded Lucas.

"Then we win."

"No, see, that's the problem. We don't. We don't win. We got the Mind Flayer out of Will before and he just came right back. We don't just have to stop Billy, we have to stop the Mind Flayer this time. For real."

"Well, how do we do that?"

"I don't know."

There was a short silence as they all thought that over—because they really had no idea how they were supposed to defeat the Mind Flayer and make it stick.

"Maybe El does," Will said.

They all looked at the bathroom door, and Mike shook his head.

"What are they still doing in there?" he asked.

Lucas stood up, shoveling in another handful of cereal. He said, "I don't know. Girls just like hanging out in bathrooms."

Mike shoved the box away when Lucas offered it to him. "Why?"

"Orgies," Richie offered. Collectively, everyone else rolled their eyes.

"I don't know," Lucas told Mike. He pointed behind him to Ross. "Why don't you ask the girl."

"Yeah, about that, are we _sure_ she's female?" Richie asked.

"Oh shut the fuck up, Tozier," she sneered, slapping his knee. He snorted, and Mike turned around to face her.

"They're conspiring against me, aren't they?" He asked.

Ross went to tell him that, yeah, they probably were, but Will spoke first.

"That's what you're concerned about right now?"

Her eyebrows jumped at the surprising amount of venom in his tone. Will wasn't usually one to snap at people—much less Mike.

"It's not my _main_ concern," Mike defended. "It's just a sub-concern."

"I thought it was over already," Will said.

"It's not _over_, okay? We're just taking a break."

"Does El know that?" Richie asked.

"She said she dumped your ass," Will said. "That doesn't sound like a break."

"It wasn't!" Max yelled from the bathroom. "You guys do realize we can still hear everything you're saying, right?"

Her words were followed by a chorus of giggles, and Mike turned to look at Will with an 'I-told-you-so' expression.

"Conspiring," he whispered. "I told you, they're conspiring."

Will rolled his eyes hard enough he was probably able to see his brain, throwing his hands up in the air like Mike was a lost cause. Lucas moved over to sit down on the couch, and held out the box of Cocoa Puffs to Ross and Richie.

From the top of the stairs, they heard another knock on the basement door.

"Not now, mom!" Mike shouted.

"Mike, open the door!"

That definitely wasn't Mrs Wheeler.

.

It hadn't been Mrs. Wheeler that came knocking—it was Nancy and Jonathan—and they hadn't come with good news.

"It was the same thing—the exact same thing that happened to Will that year," Nancy was telling them. She placed a piece of paper on the table in front of them. "And look at this. Look at the body temperatures."

Richie leaned forward to look, following Will's finger as he pointed to one of the readings. 95 degrees, pretty damn cold for a human body temperature. Any lower and that old lady would be getting hypothermia.

"He likes it cold," Will said.

"Okay," Mike said. "So this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer—"

"Mrs Driscoll," Nancy said.

"Right, yeah, Mrs Driscoll. What time was this attack?"

"Last night."

"Right, but what time last night?"

"Around 9."

Jonathan look at Nancy like this was news to him. "You waited all night to call?"

Nancy looked like she'd been caught sneaking food from the kitchen at midnight. She shrugged, "I was waiting for the doctors to run some tests."

"You weren't there?" Will asked Jonathan.

"Well, I'm here now," he defended himself, "aren't I?"

"Hallelujah," Nancy scoffed.

"Ooh, cold," Lucas said quietly under his breath.

Less quietly, Richie said, "Sounds like trouble in paradise."

The glare Nancy gave him was fierce, but she dropped it quickly in favor of changing the subject. "Um, so, what time was your sauna test?"

"Around 9," they all answered simultaneously.

"Well, that proves it," she said, lighting up at the idea. "That _proves_ my theory!"

"She's flayed," Mike said, "just like Billy."

"Flayed?" Jonathan asked.

"The Mind Flayer. He flays people," Mike said. "Takes over their minds. Once they do that, they basically become him."

"If there are two flayed," Lucas started.

"We have to assume there are more," Will finished.

"But more where?" Ross asked. "What the fuck are they out doing?"

"Heather," El said. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming—bad screams."

Collectively, everyone except Max and Ross adopted a look of confusion.

"Uh, what's a good scream?" Lucas asked.

"I can think of a few," Richie said suggestively with a shit eating grin.

El shrugged. "Max said—"

"Nope, not now," the redhead cut in. Her face started to go pink. "Doesn't matter."

"I'm sorry, I'm lost," Nancy said. "Who's Heather?"

"She's a lifeguard at the pool," Max said.

Nancy's eyes bugged. "Heather _Holloway?_"

"Uh, yeah, I think that's what the mailbox said," Ross nodded.

Jonathan and Nancy shared a look, and it wasn't kitties and sunshine. "Tom," they both said.

"Who's Tom?" Mike asked.

"Heather's asshole dad," Ross explained. "He was there when we went to find her. His forehead is huge." She said that last bit like it was extremely important to note.

"Well, what about him?" Lucas asked.

"He was acting weird when he fired us yesterday," Jonathan said.

"You guys got fired?" Will asked incredulously.

Nancy shook her head. "Not important. He looked sick."

"He looked fine when we were over," Max said.

"Maybe that's why he was over there having dinner!" Ross said. "Trying to flay them or whatever—like he did to Heather."

"We have to go look," Nancy told them. "To the car."

.

Jim was having a grand old time. Of course, just as it seemed things were finally turning around to the brighter side, it all had to go down hill. Right as he got that dumb Wheeler kid to back off of El, and got Joyce to agree to go to dinner with him, it all got thrown out the window.

And now he was walking through some hot, muggy, and buggy forest, trying to hike his way to Illinois with one of the very sources of his frustration and some Russian guy that was probably plotting to destroy _something_ Jim happened to maybe-not-really care for.

Needless to say, tensions were high.

"Oh, my god," Joyce complained. "Can you not walk so close?"

"What?" He asked. Was she serious?

"Can you not walk so close to me?" She said. "You stink."

Oh, well that was just great. The day kept getting better and better. Bitterness self through Jim like he had the chills, but he stamped it down. They really couldn't afford to start arguing where they were—in the absolutely middle of fucking nowhere. He had to at least try and be civil.

"I get it, I get it," he laughed dryly. "You're upset, right? Cause I, uh, blew up the car?"

"Yeah," She said sharply. "With me in it."

"Well, I just want to remind you of something, Joyce," he said. He smacked at a mosquito on his neck. "I am _not_ a mechanic."

"Yeah, _clearly_. That's why you should've listened to Alexei."

Okay, screw being civil.

"Oh right, yeah," he laughed. "You're new boyfriend, right?"

He probably shouldn't have said it—but Mr Clarke was still sitting in the back of his mind. She really blew him off for her kid's _science teacher?_ Sure, whatever, it was for some conspiracy theory, but Jim had thought he'd meant more to her than some stupid magnet.

"Yes," Joyce said sarcastically. "Every man I talk to from now on has to be my boyfriend." She pulled to a stop—both of them did—and gave him a look. Her expression said that he was being ridiculous, so her would show her just how ridiculous he could be.

"Yeah, he reminds me a bit of a Russian Scott Clarke."

"Oh, here we go," she scoffed.

Ever the petty instigator, Jim bent forward until he was roughly her height, putting his hands on his knees and talking to her like she was a child. He said, "Maybe you should go on a date! I know, I'm thinking, like, Enzo's?"

Their argument ended before it could even really start. On Joyce's part—she didn't look too angry about any of it, just annoyed in that way mom's get before they rip their kid a new one—so it was probably for his benefit that something interrupt their would-be-fight.

But what was _not_ for his benefit, was their foreigner prisoner making a break for it.

"Whoa," Joyce said, as soon as she saw him bolt. She sounded mildly impressed, eyebrows shooting upwards.

"What?" He asked.

"He's running."

He followed her gaze over his shoulder and watched as the little Russian guy hopped over a rotting long and began to sprint off.

"Son of a bitch!"

Forgetting about whatever the hell he and Joyce had been about to argue about, he took chase. He wondered how someone in handcuffs could run so fast.

"Hey, Smirnoff! Get back here!"

What did he think he was going to accomplish, anyway? They were in a forest, who knows how big, and the next town was probably miles away. Did he think he'd really be able to loose Jim in the trees during broad daylight?

"Hey! C'mere!"

Just as he caught up to him, Smirnoff skidded to a stop and started spouting something in Russian. He was looking off at something through the break in the trees. Hopper grabbed his shoulders once he caught up, and followed his gaze, breathing heavy.

How Smirnoff new it was here, Jim didn't know. But down a small slope there was a highway. And across that highway, a small parking lot that belonged to a 7 Eleven.

.

They didn't waste any time in crossing the highway to get there, entering the gas station to meet the sweet, sweet feeling of air conditioning. As soon as they located the drink coolers along the back wall, they all grabbed some sort of soda and popped it open, downing it faster than was humanly possible. Joyce had nearly forgot that they cost money until the clerk at the register reminded them.

"You guys gonna pay for those?" He shoved some candy in his mouth, looking at them dryly, unimpressed. She never thought she'd have a look like that given to her from someone who couldn't be much older than a teenager. She looked at Jim to see what he was going to do, but he only tipped the can back into his mouth.

After finishing the drinks and grabbing whatever else they deemed necessary, they dropped it all off at the register, where the kid—his name tag read Ricky—began to ring them up. Joyce went outside to use the payphone.

She needed to check on Will, and also see if Karen could house him for potentially a few more days. Hopefully they wouldn't be out of state for that long, but Joyce wasn't willing to bet anything on it. She knew that Ross was staying there while David was out of town, and hoped that one more kid wouldn't be too much of a burden.

She perked up when Mrs. Wheeler picked up on the other end.

"Oh, hey, Karen, it's Joyce. Yeah, I—I'm just checking in on Will."

Joyce didn't pay much attention as another vehicle rolled into the lot, parking next to a gasp pump. Karen took to explaining what she knew the kids had done—or thought, anyway—and what they were planning.

"At the movies?" She asked.

She turned to the side, looking off into the woods as Karen kept talking on the other end. Sometimes, that woman could talk for ages. But Joyce didn't mind. Karen often kept track of Will and all of his friends, always offering her house as a place to crash on short notice or in a time of need.

"Yeah," Joyce said. "So long as there's—"

"Joyce?" She turned around at the sound of a male voice, expecting Hopper, but stopped short when she saw who it really was.

David King, of all people, stood in front of her. Ross looked a lot like him. She got his height—at least that's what it was looking like—as well as his sharp facial features and eyes.

He looked confused, and rightfully so, but Joyce was also confused. Wasn't he supposed to be off at work somewhere?

"Uh, yeah, that's fine," Joyce said to Karen. She turned back to the receiver for the phone, and tried to wrap up the conversation as quick as she could. "And if he wants to stay the night again after, that's okay, too. I mean, so long as you're okay with it."

Thankfully, Karen was. It took around another minute to get a word in and tell her goodbye, and Joyce was painfully aware of David's eyes on her the whole time.

When she finally placed the phone back and turned to look at him. "David? What are you doing here? I thought you were gone for work?"

"I am," he said instantly. At the look Joyce gave him—she knew his job never took him out of state—he winced and corrected himself. "I mean, I'm not. But, I've got business in Illinois, so to speak." His tone was off, sounding almost guilty. When Joyce peeked over his shoulder, she understood why.

Valery King was only a few yards behind him, effectively hidden behind David because of how short she was. It'd been several years since Joyce had last seen her, but she hadn't changed much at all. Still the same brown eyes, soft features, face full of freckles. The only change was her hair. It remained curlyC but was now a dark chocolate brown instead of the vibrant red she'd passed onto her daughter.

This was going to be awkward.

While Joyce obviously didn't know the whole of it, she vaguely knew that _she _was part of the reason that David and Valery had split up. He'd pined after her for a while, and while Joyce found it sort of flattering it was also just really awkward. She was older than him, and already had two kids, one of which was the same age as Ross. Even if she did have feelings for David, she wasn't sure how well Ross and Will would have handled the news.

Thankfully, sometime after the whole fiasco in the fall, David's apparent feelings went away. They'd become normal adult friends—the sort of friendship parents usually had because their kids were also friends—and Joyce preferred it that way. She was never quite sure why his interest went away (never really wanted to know either), but now she had an idea.

"I, uh, never realized she'd moved to Illinois," Joyce stammered, looking back to David in favor of ignoring the look Valery had sent her away.

"Neither did I," David shrugged. "She got back in contact after the whole, uh, Hawkins Lab thing happened back in the fall. Saw it on the news."

Joyce frowned. "So, have all of your 'work trips' since then been to go see her, or?"

"Only some of them. Most of them are for actual work," he assured her.

"Does Ross know?"

At his grimace, she assumed that no, Ross did not know. She was about to ask when he was going to tell her—because knowing that girl, she was going to raise hell when she learned what was really happening. Joyce didn't blame her. Before she could question him about it though, Hopper showed up.

"Joyce?" Her, David, and Valery all turned to look at him, and his eyebrows flew past his hairline. Alexei was standing behind them, sucking away at a slurpee. "David? What the hell's going on?"

"Hopper? Shouldn't you be back in Hawkins?" David asked. "Sheriff Or Chief of Police and everything?"

Hopper looked mildly offended, and was about to correct him, but Valery spoke up instead. "He's Chief of Police now? Who let that slide?"

Hopper growled at them and asked, "What are you two doing here? I know Ross said you were out of town, but I thought it was for work."

"You've seen Roslyn?" Valery asked.

"She spent the night at the house the other day."

"Hm. She's supposed to be at the Wheelers," David muttered.

"To be fair, _you're_ supposed to be at work," Joyce said.

"What was Roslyn doing spending the night at _your_ house?" Valery asked Hopper.

"Right, I hadn't told you yet," David said. "Hopper adopted a kid around Ross's age. El, or something?"

"Adopted a kid? Who let _that_ slide?"

"We're getting off topic," Joyce said, before Hopper could snap at them like he so clearly wanted to. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Just passing through," David shrugged. "Getting more gas." He pointed over to the car that Joyce had seen roll in earlier. Now that she looked, she wasn't sure how she hadn't seen them in it. It was a yellow convertible, and the top was down.

"You have a car?" Hopper observed suddenly pretty thoughtful.

"Of course we have a car," Valery said. "It's mine."

Hopper looked at Joyce and made a split second decision. "We need it," he said.

"You need it?" David asked.

"For what? Don't you have a police vehicle?" Valery asked.

"It's, uh—out of commission," Hopper said. "And this is urgent. We'll just borrow it and bring it back when our business is finished—" Valery began to protest "—and until then you can call a friend to come pick you up or something. You've got friends, don't you?"

"You're just as obnoxious as I remember," Valery sneered. "What makes you think—"

"Val, hold on," David cut in. She turned her fierce glare onto him. "Hopper, let's talk about this inside?"

Hopper gruffly nodded, and the two men walked off as Valery said indignantly, "But it's _my_ car!"

The following silence that ensued was painfully awkward, and it didn't help that Alexei just stood there, drinking his slurpee without a care in the world.

"Who's your friend?" Valery asked after a moment, eyeing him sideways.

"His name's Alexei," Joyce said. "He's Russian."

On que, he said something neither of them could understand and waved.

"Why is he handcuffed?"

"Well..." This was a pickle. Joyce wasn't sure how much she could spill, if she could spill anything at all. "We need him for an investigation."

"An investigation? What are you—Detective Byers now?" Valery asked sarcastically. She didn't wait for an answer, because it was obviously 'no'. Instead she said, "Is he a criminal or something?"

"He's, uh...a dangerous forger."

"Dangerous forger?" Valery asked. It was obvious she wasn't buying a single word, but Joyce nodded anyway.

"Yeah. You know, Russian printing counterfeit money—trying to cripple the economy, that sort of thing."

"I see," Valery drawled. There were a few more seconds of silence before she started again. "How are the boys?"

"Good," Joyce nodded. "They're good."

"Lonnie still around?"

"Oh, god no. He's gone, hopefully for good."

"Oh, well that's good."

"Yeah, it is."

They lapsed into another bout of silence, pointedly looking away from each other while Alexei glanced between the two curiously. After a few more minutes, Hopper and David finally came out of the store, both looking a bit rumpled.

Still, Hopper at least looked vaguely satisfied. David looked like he'd just learned something that didn't make him too happy.

"C'mon," he told Valery, nodding to the yellow convertible. "We'll give 'em a ride." She huffed, but followed anyway, tossing him the keys.

As they walked ahead to the vehicle, Joyce stepped up to Hopper and asked, "What did you say to him to get him to help?"

Hopper shrugged. "Not everything, just the basics. The Russians, that guy chasing us, your magnets. Couldn't get him to let us just take the car—so this is the next best thing."

Huffing, Joyce nodded. "You're right. Better get this done with as quickly as possible then."

She pointedly ignored the way Valery was pointedly ignoring them, and climbed in the back of the convertible. She could tell this was going to cause problems. Valery had never liked her—or anyone else for that matter—and Joyce was just betting on how long it would take for this to crash and burn.

Still, though, they had things to do, places to be. Joyce sighed and shifted over to make more room for Alexei, bracing herself for the ride ahead of them.

.

They pulled into the Holloway's drive, and Richie was surprised they had actually made it. Nancy was a _terrible_ driver, at least while she was in a hurry. She did the absolute bare minimum when it came to making sure their lives didn't end in a fiery crash.

Hell, even while backing out of the driveway, she'd managed to hit all of their bikes!

Thankfully, she reminded them to put on seatbelts before they took off. The small seats him, Ross, Mike, and Will were left to share in the bike weren't built for multiple people. Each seat was probably made for one, but they made it work. Ross and Mike were squeezed in on one side, sharing the one seat buckle that thankfully just went over their waist, and Will and Richie shared the other.

It felt weird, all nine of them climbing out of the car and waiting on the front steps as Nancy rang the doorbell. He wasn't really sure what the goal was. If this Tom guy didn't answer, they obviously went in and looked for clues—but if he did answer? What then? How would the explain away two recently-fires employees showing up at his door with a small army of teenagers behind them?

But Tom didn't answer, and after the second time ringing the doorbell, they had El pop the lock. They walked in slowly, Nancy and Jonathan in the lead. Those two looks more nervous than the rest of them, like they expect their ex-boss to jump out of the shadows and club them over the heads.

"Tom? Heather?" Nancy called.

Ross and Richie were bringing up the rear, so they were the last to feel the icy air from inside the house sweep over them. Someone must have cranked the AC, because it was insanely chilly. Richie crossed his arms to stave off the goosebumps and all he could think about was Will saying earlier '_He likes it cold_'.

None of them spoke as they walked through the small hall, peeking through doorways until they stopped in what had to be the kitchen.

"Do you smell that?" Nancy asked after a moment. Simultaneously, they all sniffed the air. It smelled strongly of chemicals, like someone was holding a bucket of cleaning supplies beneath Richie's nose.

They all turned around and winced when they saw the overturned bottles of cleaner and some of that powder comet stuff. They were sitting on top of...was that an overturned fridge?

"Oh, god," Nancy groaned. "More chemicals."

"What the hell were they doing with them?" Richie asked, crinkling his nose up.

They got closed to the mess, and Jonathan picked up one of the bottles. "You think they're guzzling this shit?" He asked.

"Yeah," Nancy said. "Either that is they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree."

"They did a piss poor job," Ross said.

"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals," Max said. "Did you?"

"No," Will said, shaking his head. "This is something new."

"Maybe they're trying to kill them selves and just didn't have any bleach," Richie quipped. Ross elbowed him sharply. Mike shook his head.

"Mr. Clarke, fifth grade," he said.

"You expect me to remember the _fifth grade?_" Ross asked. "I don't even remember eighth."

"Posit. What happens when you mix chemicals together?"

"You create a new substance," Will and Lucas said in unison. Ross scoffed and muttered something about nerds under her breath.

"What if they're making something?" Mike suggested.

"In themselves?" Max asked doubtfully. "I mean, come on, if you drink enough of this crap, it'll kill you."

"Yeah, if you're human," Lucas said.

No one really had anything to say to that, so they moved onto the next room. It was the dining room, and it looked like whoever was eating there never got to finish.

Richie took in the set up—plates filled of food, half empty cups, and the lingering smell of something spoiled clashed with the strong chemicals from the kitchen. There was a huge purple stain on the white table cloth, with an empty wine glass sitting next to it.

"This is the food from the other night," Ross said. "Heather had asked us if she wanted cookies." She pointed to the pan of them, and considering it was still full, they must not have taken any.

The dining room led to the living room, and a wine bottle sat on their fancy carpet, the contents spilled into the fabric. A few feet away from that was a dark red stain that definitely wasn't wine.

"Blood," Nancy muttered.

"Yesterday," She said when Jonathan kneeled next to her. "Tom had a bandage on his forehead." She reached over and picked up the wine bottle, and held it up from them to see.

There was a flash of red across the white label. Richie briefly wondered what kind of glass that thing had to be made of to _not_ shatter after giving someone a knock to the head hard enough to break skin.

"He was attacked."

"I have a suspect," Richie muttered under his breath.

Clearly, Billy had done his dirty work as soon as the girls had left the other night. Whatever the hell that dirty work was—he didn't know. Couldn't even think about what game Max's bro was playing, giving people head trauma and then letting them go to work the next day.

Nancy and Jonathan continued through the house, eyeing various little hints that pointed to the fact that something had happened the other night and that it probably wasn't a great time for the Holloway family.

Rumpled rugs and blood stains led them to the garage, where there was a loose pile of ropes sitting on the ground.

"They must have tied them up," Jonathan said, picking at the spare rope. He stood. "They must have taken them somewhere."

"But where?" Ross asked. "I don't think Billy has some secret lair where he can...flay people, or whatever."

She paused and then gave Max the side eye.

"Does he?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Max muttered.

"Mrs. Driscoll," Nancy said. "She kept saying 'I have to go back'. What if the flaying is taking place somewhere else?"

"Uh yeah, we kinda figured that part out already, Nancy Drew," Richie said. She glared, but didn't spare him a comeback.

"There must be a place where all of this started, right?" Nancy asked. "A source."

"Somewhere he didn't want me to see," El agreed.

"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him," Nancy theorized. They gave each other doubtful glances, and she reworded herself. "Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals."

"How do we find it?" El asked.

"Mrs. Driscoll," Will said suddenly. "If she wants to go back to badly...why don't we let her?"

Nancy looked over to Jonathan, and they both shared a nod. "That actually...could work."

.

When David pulled up to the address Hopper had given him, Joyce had expected a little more than some rundown building. There was nothing in the lot except a big red van and fallen leaves.

It didn't look like whatever help or answers Hopper and her needed would be found here. Maybe drugs and some trouble, yeah, but not anything they were looking for.

Valery scoffed when they pulled to a stop, and David shook his head. He turned to look back at them.

"This is it?" He asked skeptically.

Hopper nodded. "This is it." He clapped a hand on the back of the seat, stood up and heaved himself over the side of the car. "Thanks for the ride, you guys can go back to whatever date you were having."

"Wait, that's it?" David asked at the same time Valery said, "Thank god."

They both turned to each other for a second, and it looked like Valery wanted to start an argument. Joyce couldn't help but note that the look was very natural on her.

"Uh, yes that's it," Hopper said plainly, shrugging.

"No," David shook his head. "We have you a ride here, you told me what was up—we're staying."

"Listen, David," Hopper sighed, shaking his head. "I'm glad for the ride, really. I appreciate it. But there's no need anymore—you can go back to whatever you're hiding from Ross. We'll go back to figure out what the Russians are hiding from us."

The comment about Ross was really a low blow, but true all the same. David winced when it was said, and Valery glared at Hopper fiercely. Joyce wondered how Valery felt about keeping her and David's interactions a secret from Ross. Didn't she want to see her daughter again?

"Hopper, please," David said. "If you found this guy in Hawkins, and whatever they're planning really _is_ dangerous, then I want to know what it is. Ross is back there. _El_ is back there. Will is. Let us help."

Hopper looked like he was about to argue again, tell him no, but Joyce laid a hand on his shoulder.

"It couldn't hurt," she said. "And besides, we'll need a ride back."

He huffed once, rolled his eyes, and then nodded. "Fine. Whatever."

Valery had a nasty look on her face. "Sure," she sneered, quietly but still loud enough to be heard. "Offer up my car and then force me on some mission." It was clearly meant for David, and the bite in her tone was vicious, but he only sighed and ignored her.

"I thought you said this guy was a journalist," Joyce said as they approached the rusted door. It had 'Keep Out' spray painted on it in bold, but they all gracefully ignored that.

"Uh, yeah," Hopper said. "He was."

"Was?" Joyce and Valery asked at the same time.

Hopper leaned forward and pressed the little buzzer button to the left of the door, and they a stern voice spoke back to them almost instantly.

"_Look at the camera_."

They all let their eyes wonder around for the camera, and when Hopper leaned down to look at the buzzer, the voice directed them to it.

"_The camera. Above you to the right_."

All eyes turned there, and Joyce gave a little wave up at it.

"_Identify yourselves_," the voice said.

"Jim Hopper, Joyce Byers, David King, Valery, uh—" Hopper stopped for a moment, glancing down at the woman, who rolled her eyes.

"Valery King," she finished for him.

Hm, so she kept David's last name.

"And this is Smirnoff," Hopper said, patting the Russian's cheek.

"Alexei," Joyce corrected him.

"Alexei."

"_Surname_," the voice asked.

"I don't know."

"_Family name_!"

"Yeah, I know!" Hopper yelled at the camera. "I told—I don't know, okay? Open the damn door!"

"Hopper," Joyce said, turning to him and giving him a look that said 'you need to calm down'.

"It's alright," he muttered, shaking his head. "Don't worry. He's a little bit eccentric, but he's completely harmless."

The door swung open, and out came a man that did not look like a journalist nor harmless.

Joyce gasped as the man swung a shotgun up and pointed it straight at Alexei, cocking it swiftly. He was balding—had one of the haircuts where the hair grew everywhere except the very top of his head, big wire-rim glasses, and a beer gut.

"Name," he said.

Alexei raised his hands and said something in Russian. The man actually cracked a smile at that, and then responded back, just as fluent.

He glanced over to Hopper, and nodded, looking way too happy with that gun in his hands. "Hi, Jim."

Seconds later, they were being led deeper into the building—house—meth lab—whatever it was. She could hear loud music coming from somewhere, and almost bumped into the back of David when the man—Murray—turned around and told them to wait.

They stood where they were as he went and retrieved what looked like some vaguely threatening, makeshift metal detector.

Hopper was right, the guy really was an oddball. He held up the detector and waved it in the air in front of Alexei slowly, looking like he was enjoying himself. When he reached the handcuffs at Alexei's wrists, the Russian pulled his hands up and yelled something.

Murray said something back, and Hopper took a step forward. "How long is this gonna take?" He asked. "Because I—"

"No," Murray cut him off.

"No?" Hopper repeated

"No. No, _you_ do not get to questions me," Murray said, waving the metal detector in his face. He started poking him in the chest with it. "_You_ have dragged an enemy of the state into my home as carelessly as a child drags in shit on his shoe. I will search him until I am satisfied."

Joyce glanced at David and Valery and saw the surprise written on their faces, and then she saw the look on Hopper's. She clears her throat, and grabbed Hopper's arm. "Jim. C'mere."

It didn't look like he wanted to listen. He raised his finger up slowly, like he was getting ready to rip Murray a new one, so Joyce tugged harder in his arm, pulling him back. "Just c'mere. I need to talk to you."

"Yeah, what," he asked as she dragged him back down the hall. "What?"

"This is not gonna work," Joyce said.

"What do you mean?"

"He's not eccentric, he's certifiable."

"Glass houses, Joyce."

"What?"

"You know, pot calling the kettle black."

Was he kidding?

"Oh, come on—"

"Excuse me!" Murray yelled down at them.

"What?" Hopper asked.

"Do me a favor and move your lovers' quarrel elsewhere," he told them.

Joyce started shaking her head, taking a step back from Hopper. "No, no, no."

"Oh, oh, this?" Hopper sneered. "Not a lovers' quarrel, pal."

From the look on David and Valery's faces, they apparently thought otherwise, too.

"Spare me!" Murray said obnoxiously.

Alright, Joyce was not having it. Not now, not when there were far more important matters at hand.

"What is your problem?" She demanded, marching back down the hall towards him. He lowered the metal detector and met her head on.

"Please, stop talking!" He yelled at her.

"No! We have had a very long day," Joyce said. "We have been shot at, nearly blown up, walked God knows how many miles in a hundred degree heat, hitched a ride, all while being chased by this gigantic...psychopath, all so we could bring _him—" _she jabbed her thumb at Alexei_ "—_to _you!_

"Because somehow, you're the closest person who speaks Russian, which I can't believe—but that doesn't matter because, unfortunately, we're here. So, if you don't mind, put that thing _away_, stop behaving like a _jackass_, and ask him what he's doing that's making my _magnets fall off my damn fridge!_"

There was a few seconds of silence, save for Valery's quiet mutter of "magnets?". Joyce glanced around, a bit shocked she had actually went off like that but equally glad she did, and added, "Please!"

Without waiting for a response, she tore the metal detector from Murray's hands and walked further into the room.

.

So the game plan was to march straight into the hospital, look as normal as possible, and just beeline it to Mrs. Driscoll's room before anyone has the chance to stop them. Ross didn't think it was going to work, and she was right.

That plan was shot all to hell when the receptionist at the front desk zeroed in on them all as soon as they walked through the door. In hindsight, a bunch of teenagers wondering into a hospital while trying their hardest to avoid eye contact wasn't very inconspicuous.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the woman said, breaking off from whatever conversation she was having over the phone. "Excuse me!"

She stood up from her spot as they all slowed to a stop. "Where do you think you're going?"

Nancy, who they all elected leader for this little missions, spun around and plastered on a smile.

"Oh, um, I was just going to visit my grandma again," she said. "And—and this...this is my family."

It wasn't convincing, not at all. Especially because Lucas was standing in the middle of their group. It was easy to tell he wasn't family—for obvious reasons, and the receptionist knew it. She tilted her head forward and peered at him through her glasses, raising an eyebrow high.

He smiled awkwardly and shrugged. "Extended."

"I don't care who you are," the lady said sassily. "You know the rules. Three visitors at a time."

"Yeah," Nancy said. "But—"

"Three!" The lady exclaimed, holding up her fingers. Without missing a beat, she sat down, picked up the phone and said, "Girl, this child has lost her mind. She brought a while zoo in here."

They all backtracked to the waiting area, and began to argue about who was going to go visit.

"Me and Jonathan, obviously," Nancy said. "And honestly the rest of you could just stay here. Not everyone needs to go in."

"You just tried to tell that lady that we were all going to go up," Richie reminded her. "Won't it be a bit suspicious if only two of us go?"

"He's right," Mike said. "For once."

"Then who should go?" Nancy asked. "All we're doing is gonna get her out of bed, there's no point."

"Well, what if something happens?" Lucas said. "You'll need back up."

"I'll go," El offered.

"No, nothing's gonna happen," Nancy said. "And anyway, Mrs. Driscoll is an old lady—what is she going to do?"

"Fine, but incase something _does_ happen," Mike said. "We at least need a way to warn each other."

"Did any of you bring your walkie talkies?" Jonathan asked.

They all exchanged glances, because no, not one of them had thought to do that.

"Well then what do you suggest?" Nancy asked. When no one immediately responded, she raised her hands and said, "Look, who cares if she's suspicious. Me and Jonathan will just go alone, you guys wait here."

She turned around to walk off, but Max stopped her. "What about Will and Ross?"

Ross gave Max the side eye. "What _about_ Will and Ross?" She repeated skeptically.

"Well, think about it," Max said. "Will can always tell when the Mind Flayer activates people. He gets that feeling. And you, Ross, your nose starts to bleed every single time."

She crinkled up her nose, not liking where this was going. "Nearly every time Will's gotten that feeling, your nose had started to bleed."

"What's your point?" Ross asked.

"One of you guys go with them," Mike said, realizing Max's angle. He looked between Will and Ross. "And one of you stays here. If something starts to happen, we'll be warned on both ends."

"I'm not sure about that," Nancy said.

"It could work," Mike insisted. "Which one of you want to go?"

Ross looked over at Will, and immediately saw the discomfort in his stance. Clearly, he didn't want to go up—probably not anymore than she did. But he'd also been through a lot, and if he didn't want to go, she would.

"I'll go," she sighed.

"Are you sure?" Will asked.

She nodded, giving him a tight smile.

"Alright," Nancy said. "I guess. Let's go."

Her and Jonathan began to walk off, so Ross gave the rest of them a short wave before following.

The elevator ride was painfully awkward, to say the least. The little background music they had going on was terrible, and the tension between Nancy and Jonathan was so strong it would probably physically manifest in the elevator with them if they stood there long enough.

Ross stood in the back, leaning against one of the walls as they went up. Nancy and Jonathan stood in front of the doors, and Ross hoped they wouldn't talk about...whatever was going on with them.

She had no such luck.

"You know," Nancy started after a few seconds. "Those things that I said yesterday, I...I didn't mean them."

"I know," Jonathan said, after sparing Ross an awkward glance over his shoulder.

"I don't think you're like those asshole," Nancy said. "At all. I never have. And I was just—"

"Angry?" Jonathan cut her off. "Which I still don't get. I mean, I was just completely, utterly, mortifyingly...wrong. Don't let that go to your head."

"I won't," Nancy said, and Ross could hear the smile in her voice. "I just look forward to you never doubting me again."

The elevator dinged and opened, and Nancy walked out seeming very smug. Jonathan looked back to Ross and nodded to the hallways.

"Sorry about that. You ready?"

"Yeah, I guess so," she said with a shrug. He let her off first, then followed her and Nancy down the hall to what had to be Mrs. Driscoll's room.

It was empty.

"Where is she?" Jonathan asked as they walked further in.

"I don't know," Nancy said.

"Don't suppose there's any chance she'd be in the bathroom?" Ross asked.

Nancy shook her head and moved to the table at the foot of the bed, and began to sift through the papers sitting there.

"Is this the right room?" Jonathan asked.

"Yeah," Nancy said breathlessly.

Jonathan saw the blood coming from Ross's nose before she felt it. "Shit," he said, lifting a hand up to his own nose.

"Naturally," Ross said, wiping it away as best as she could with the back of her hand. "Do you think it's Mrs Driscoll?"

Nancy tilted Ross's head back to get a better look at the blood. "I don't know, but she's got to be somewhere in the building. She could only go missing for so long before they raised alarms."

The lights above them buzzed for a moment and then began to flicker. Ross shifted closer to Jonathan, looking up and wondering if it was because something bad was happening or just an electrical problem.

"She's gone home," someone said from the doorway. They all spun around, and Ross's heart leapt into her throat.

It was Heather's dad, Tom. He looked roughed up, his shirt untucked, tie askew, and sweating like he'd just spent time in the sauna. But what was most unsettling were his arms, slick with blood up to his elbows.

"We were hoping you might come back," he said to them. He began to walk forward, and Jonathan moved in front of Nancy and Ross, pushing them backwards as he backed up.

"Who's blood is that?" Jonathan asked.

"Tom, whatever you've done, it's not you," Nancy said shakily.

Ross didn't really think that trying to reason or sympathize with the guy was going to do anything—not with the look in his eyes and the way he was staring them down. She really wished that she wouldn't of had to come up, now. She wondered if Will had felt that Tom was here, and was sending the rest of them up here to find them or get help.

Her heart began to pound in her chest as Tom kept advancing on them.

"He's making you do this," Nancy said.

Jonathan apparently wasn't going to try and sit and talk it out, either. He picked up a vase of flowers at the foot table and smashed it into the side of Tom's face with a grunt.

The force of it knocked the guy straight into the wall, and the glass from the vase flew everywhere.

"Go!" Jonathan shouted, snatching Ross and Nancy by the hands and pulling them along behind him.

When they got into the hallway, they turned to go down the way they came, but another man Ross didn't know was standing in their way. He looked just as rumpled and bloodied as Tom.

He raised a hand to his head as black vein-like lines started to spiderweb across his face. "Owie."

"What the fuck," Ross whispered. Nancy grabbed onto her hand, intertwining her fingers as she started to back up.

The man began to stalk towards them, and Jonathan spun around and pushed them to the door behind them. "Go! Go! Go!"

It lead into the stairwell, and Nancy pulled Ross down the stairs with her as Jonathan slammed the door shut behind them.

"Run!"

They went into the next door they saw, throwing it open and sprinting down the hall. Ross looked to her right and screamed when she saw a dead woman on the ground, blood splattered everywhere. Nancy kept tugging her along, not slowing down for even a second.

When Ross looked over her shoulder behind them, she saw one of the men coming in through the door. Jonathan told them to keep running, surpassing them both.

They passed a hallway to the left of them, and down it were even more dead people, laying in pools of blood. The lights kept flickering, sometimes casting the hallway in complete darkness.

"This way, this way!" Jonathan said, leading them down a hallway that was blocked off with a giant white sheet.

This side of the floor must have been blocked off or something, because there were absolutely no people, dead or otherwise, and no medical equipment lining the walls and stuff.

They kept going, bursting through another set of doors and down another hall. They were all heaving for breath, and Ross was nearly glad that they pulled to a stop for a moment. Jonathan had found one of those buzzer speaker things, and pressed the button down.

"Hello? Hello!" He called into it.

"Here!" Nancy said, tugging on his shirt and pulling Ross to a room nearby. Jonathan followed, shutting and locking (thank fuck) the door behind them.

Nancy dropped Ross's hand and moved to a phone mounted on the far wall.

"It's ringing!" She told them. She held it to her ear and waiting for whoever it was on the other line to answer.

Ross looked around the room. It had to be where they had surgeries, if the fancy mounted lights and glass cabinets were anything to go by. It still looked empty of anything they would actually use to have surgeries, though. No supplies, medication, anything like that.

"Come on, pick up!" Nancy shouted, banging in the table.

The lights began to flicker again, and Jonathan turned around to look at them. "Nancy?"

Ross shrieked when the small glass window on the door shattered, punched through by the man who was following them. She hightailed it over to Jonathan and Nancy, holding absolutely no shame about hiding behind them.

She'd dealt with supernatural monsters and Billy looking for blood—but never with actual adults that looked like they'd just got done murdering people, and judging from all the dead bodies, they probably actually had been.

The man stuck his head through the broken window, smiling sadistically at them. "Hi there."

He really had no business being as creepy as he was. He stuck a bloody hand through the window and unlocked the door, opening it up for himself.

"Jonathan?" Ross asked breathlessly, grabbing into the back of his shirt. He back up, pressing Ross into the wall behind them and grabbing firmly ahold of Nancy.

"I'm here for you, Nancy Drew," the man said, walking towards them.

Jonathan stepped forward, raising his arm to throw a punch, but the man blocked it and used the opening to grab him by the throat.

"No!" Nancy shouted, charging forward to do _something_, but the man shoved her backwards, knocking her straight into the wall and a few rolling tables.

"Nancy!" Ross shouted. She was freaking out, unsure what to do. The man was between her and Nancy, and she wasn't betting on being able to get past him.

The man choked Jonathan and headbutted him. Then, exhibiting strength no man should posses, just turned and threw Jonathan halfway across the room. He hit the wall hard and slumped to the floor. Ross ran over to him, grabbing his arms to help him up and off the ground.

"Jonathan!" Nancy yelled, and Ross looked up just in time to see the man bring a metal chair down on Jonathan's back.

Ross fell backwards as he fell back down, scrambling backwards as the man stepped over him towards her. She backed all the way into the corner, tears threatening to spill as the man raised the chair above his head.

Between his legs, Ross caught Jonathan's eye. His face was bleeding, and even though she could hear his ragged breathing from where she was, he was still trying to climb to his feet.

"Say goodnight," the man smiled down at her.

Ross squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for impact. She wondered if the hit would kill her. If it didn't, she would be having one hell of a concussion.

She opened her eyes when she heard Nancy let out a war cry, and jumped when the metal chair clattered to the ground in front of her.

The man turned around, forgetting all about Ross in favor of Nancy, who was backing away now. Ross wondered what she'd done to get him to drop the chair, but then she saw the scissors sticking out of his shoulder.

He reached behind him and pulled them straight out. Holding them in his hands, he shook his head at Nancy. "You bitch."

"Nancy, Ross," Jonathan gasped on the floor. Ross jumped up onto her feet and moved towards him, but he shook his head. "Run!"

She really didn't want to leave him, but it looked like the man was done with Jonathan now. He was just after Nancy, and so they had to get her out there somehow.

She nodded firmly to him and sprinted to the door, putting as much room between her and the man as she could. Nancy shoved a table between them, darting back towards the door with Ross.

They burst into the hallway, and Nancy immediately began to yell for help. Ross had her by the hand, trying to pull her along faster. She only began to run when the man walked out into the hall after them.

"Help!" Nancy shouted. "Is anyone here?!"

"Nancy!" The man called after them, sounding way too enthusiastic for Ross's tastes.

The reached the end of the hall, and Ross turned the corner and dashed through the only open door. She grabbed onto the handle and waited for Nancy to follow her in. She'd taken the time to grab the fire extinguisher off the wall, and Ross slammed the door as soon as she entered the room.

Nancy turned in circles, breathing heavily and taking in the room. Green curtains hung from the ceiling in several places, and she moved towards some of them, pushing them aside so her and Ross could hide behind them.

"Nancy—" Ross started, but the older girl turned to her and shook her head quickly.

She lifted a finger to her lips, and seeing the tears run down her face made Ross even more terrified.

Where were the others at? Was Jonathan okay?

As if she could send Ross's panic, she pulled her close, peeking through the curtains and towards the door. She looked around the room again, and then pulled Ross out of the curtains and towards the back corner, where some room dividers were set up. She pushed her behind them first, then shuffled in after her, take the end and closing it off from the rest of the room.

They waited in silence for several moments, and Ross's breath hitched when she heard the door open.

"Yoo hoo."

She covered her mouth with her hand, holding her breath and squeezing her eyes shut. This was straight out of a horror movie.

Don't get her wrong, everything about this—including the Mind Flayer and stuff—was like a horror show, but this part was painfully real. She'd only had a few encounters where she thought she was going to die, but none of them had been by another human being until now. Ross wasn't going to be killed by some monster—she was going to be murder by some creepy asshole who worked for it.

"Nancy Drew," he called. "Where are you?"

She jumped when she heard the first set of curtains pushed aside.

"Nancy," he sang, pushing aside the next set.

"Marco." There went the third.

"Marco," he said again, sounding upset when he pushed aside the last curtain and didn't find them there.

Nancy pushed aside the room divided and raised the fire extinguisher. "Polo!" She yelled, running straight up to the man and slamming him in the face with it.

Where the impact had been made, the skin turned black, almost like it had bruised instantly. Black blood gushed out of his nose and down his face, and Nancy wasted no time in swing the extinguisher upwards and knocking him straight in the jaw with it.

He stumbled backwards, looking disoriented, and then fell to his knees. He groaned, staring up at them, and Nancy raised the extinguisher above her head.

"Go—to—hell!" Nancy ground out, before bringing it down onto his skull.

"Holy shit," Ross breathed when he collapsed backwards. Maybe she felt a little bit too happy about Nancy kicking his shit—but he had murder other people and nearly them, too.

Trust Nancy Wheeler to save the day.

She dropped the extinguisher on the ground, and Ross stepped up next to her, grabbing her arm.

"I know this is probably bad timing," Ross panted, "but that was super badass."

Nancy mustered a weak chuckle before the lights went out completely. They blinked back on a moment later, but then began to flicker even more rapidly than before.

The man on the ground began to convulse, wiggling on the ground and grunting. They two girls began to walk around him, keeping back a few feet as they watched him seize.

Ross's breath caught when his skin began to bubble, turning red. "What the fuck!" And then, almost like he was melting, his body deflated and dissolved into some sort of red goo, bubbling and sizzling on the floor.

It was probably the nastiest thing she'd ever seen, and she might have puked had her adrenaline not been riding so high. It only got worse when the goo began to move. As one unit, almost like it was alive, it slid across the floor and towards the door. It kept bubbling up, looking like it wanted to shape into something but couldn't quite yet.

Nancy began to follow it, much to Ross's dismay, but she went after her into the hallway.

Down on the other end, she could see Jonathan standing there, watching a giant blob slink across the floor that was nearly identical to the one they were watching.

The two blobs met in the middle of the hallway, converging together. Ross's mouth dropped as it began to grow, gathering up and forming vaguely-shaped limbs.

Once more, the lights when out completely, and Ross whimpered.

When they came back on, she screamed.

It was even worse than the demogorgon. It's body was almost too big for the hallway, with so many misshaped limbs it looks like some giant, slimy, bloody, mutilated spider straight from the darkest pits of hell. It shrieked so loud, Ross had to cover her hears, staring as the several rows of jagged teeth in its mouth.

She only moved when Nancy grabbed her arms and pulled her back to the exit door behind them. Ross stared at the monster as Nancy tried to shove the door open—snapping out of her stupor when Nancy yelled at her.

"Help me!"

Ross tore her eyes from the thing and pushed against the door, but it was blocked on the other side by something. The monster roared again, and Ross rammed her shoulder so hard into the door she would probably bruise.

She almost fell over when the door finally gave way, and Nancy pulled her through it. They stumbled into the next hall, breathing heavy and both past the beginnings of panic.

Ross felt like she could hardly breath, and her chest constricted painfully with every inhale. They both sprinted down the hall, and she didn't even have to look behind her to know the monster had busted down the same door they'd just came though.

She heard it lumbering down the hall after them, snarling and growling at them. Ross took a sharp right, looking behind her only to make sure Nancy was following.

She'd never ran faster in her life—not even when she was in the Upside Down and thought the Demogorgon was chasing after her. But it was still gaining on them, and they had no choice to crash into the nearest room before it caught up.

They slammed the door close just in time, and jumped away from it as it thudded from the impact of the creature. Ross continued to back up, trying to reign in her sobs so she could breath properly, but it was very hard to do when the chances of getting killed kept climbing higher and higher.

"Oh my god," Nancy whimpered.

Ross nearly keeled over and died on the spot when she saw the weird substance it was made of coming in from the bottom of the door.

"Jonathan," Nancy said. "Jonathan!"

The mass began to take shape in front of them again, just as it had earlier, and any hope Ross had of living went down the drain. She could hear Jonathan on the other side of the door, shouting their names, but it was locked from the inside. Unless he was going to bust that door down, they were dead.

When the monster finally took shape, it roared and swung out one of its limbs, slamming into Nancy and launching her towards the back of the room. Ross screamed, throwing her hands up to cover her head and dropping to the floor like dead weight.

It moved forward, slinking towards Ross and towering over her. She scrambled backwards, but in no time at all it was straight above her. It's head and rows of teeth were inches above her, and the weird slime from it's mouth dropped down onto her.

When it opened its mouth up and roared, she closed her eyes shut, turned her head to the side, and screamed. Still, it was so loud she couldn't hear herself.

She couldn't hear the door busting down either.

She continued to scream even as she creature moved away from her, scrambling backwards to the wall.

In the doorway, she saw Eleven and everyone else behind her. El threw her hand to the side and launched the monster into the right wall, and then threw it towards the left. With a war cry, she slammed it up into the ceiling, dropping ceiling tiles, and then dropped it down onto the floor.

Despite the beating, it stood up and snarled at El. It made to move forward, but she shoved both of her hands outwards and it flew up and out of the window above Ross. Glass rained down on her and she curled into a ball, covering her face as best as she could.

"Go!" She heard El yell, and then the thundering of footsteps as the rest of them took off down the hall.

Only Jonathan stayed, first going to check on Nancy and make sure she was okay, before they both moved over to her.

"Ross, it's okay," Jonathan said, pulling on her shoulder until she sat up.

She was still a mess, and a single glance at Nancy had her falling into the other girl's arms. They were both shaking from that close call, and Nancy told her that they were safe now.

"Are you okay?" Jonathan asked after a moment. "Are you hurt?"

Ross shook her head, and he nodded. "Alright, but we've got to get moving. Can you stand?"

She nodded, and together Nancy and Jonathan pulled her to her feet.

They went after the others, who had gone to see where the damn thing had went. They found them all out in the front of the hospital, staring at a grate in the street.

Ross's heart jumped at seeing it again, but this time it was retreating into the grate, melting down through the bars and thankfully away from her.

No one talked for about a minute, all mulling over whatever the fuck had happened in their heads.

The first one to speak was Richie.

He looked over to Ross, took in her bloody nose, tear stained face, fearful expression, and balked at how scared she looked. She was staring down at the grate like she expected the monster to pop back out and massacre them all in one go.

The closest Richie had seen Ross get to being that terrified was back in the fall, right after they had all gotten out of that weird ass underground tunnel. She had completely flipped her shit after the near death experience, and it looked like she was on the verge of doing the same thing right then, too.

He remember seeing the monster bearing down on top of her and he couldn't blame her for seeming so panicked. But he also didn't know how to feel about it, or what to do. So he just opened his mouth and let words fly.

"You look like shit."

These were apparently the wrong words.

Ross looked up at him, and then burst into tears. Richie mouth dropped, and he immediately began fumbling for a save.

"Uh—I mean, you look great. Very—super pretty," he stuttered. Max punched him in the arm and he winced, rubbing the spot. "I don't—I meant—"

"Shut up," Lucas said, shaking his head. "It's not that."

Mike was by her side in an instant, his We've-Been-Best-Friends-Forever instincts kicking in. He slipped one of his arms around her and she sagged into him, sobbing into his shirt and clutching him like a lifeline.

When Richie looked over, Nancy was crying, too. Maybe not as hard, but she was crying all the same, holding onto Jonathan. Whatever had happened must have been traumatizing.

"Let's head to the car," Jonathan suggested quietly, tugging Nancy to where they parked.

They all moved along, Ross still crying to Mike, and loaded into the car. This time, Jonathan drove. Nancy sat shotgun, and Mike, Ross, and Max all got backseat. They drove back to El's house, and Mike pulled Ross (who had stopped crying) into the bathroom to clean up as soon as they got inside.

They were in there for a while, and Richie guessed that they were talking about what had happened. Nancy and Jonathan were doing the same thing in the living room with them, relaying every detail back to them.

Eventually, Jonathan and Nancy moved to the kitchen to talk, leaving the rest of them in the living room.

Lucas was wringing his hands together, eyeing the bathroom door. "I haven't seen her that upset since she came back from the Upside Down," he said quietly.

"Will she be okay?" El asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Mike's usually able to calm her down, but she just needs to let it all out first."

They were in there for only a bit longer, and when they came out Ross looked okay. Her eyes were still red and puffy, but the blood was gone and she didn't look ready to have a mental breakdown.

She didn't say anything either, she just moved over to the couch and sat down between Richie and Will. She leaned into Richie and his stomach flipped. Suddenly hyper aware of her touching him, he stamped down any and all feelings, and threw an arm over her shoulder.

"Do I still look like shit?" She asked him, smiling. He noticed that when she cried, her eyes turned a lot more blue than green.

He grinned at her. "The shittiest."

Ross nodded and laid her head on his shoulder, and in a few more minutes she was already asleep.


End file.
